Etymograph

English

tetchy

Tetchy may come from Scots tache ‘blotch, fault’.

  1. Scotsc. 1450–presenttache‘blotch, fault’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595tetchy

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Scotsc. 1450–presenttache‘blotch, fault’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595tetchy

Earliest quotation: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “Nurce: ...But as I said, when it did tast…”

first attested Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III (as stated in the etymology)

The story

Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Perhaps coined by Shakespeare. Also variously derived from English tetch (‘tantrum, fit of anger’); from Scots tache (‘blotch, fault’); from Middle English tatch (‘blemish’) &c. under influence from touchy.

Every English word from Scots tache

Today it means

adj Synonym of touchy: easily annoyed or irritated, peevish, testy, irascible; also (figurative) extremely sensitive, difficult to manage, use, or work.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Scots tache / tetchy

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