tetchy

adj

Etymology: Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. 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.

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

   “Nurce: ...But as I said, when it did tast the wormwood on the nipple of my dug, & felt it bitter, pretty foole to see it teachie and fall out with Dugge...”

   “King. And came I not at last to comfort you? Du. No by the holie roode thou knowst it well, Thou camst on earth to make the earth my hell, A greuous burthen was thy berth to me, Techie and waiward was thy infancie, Thy schoele-daies frightful, desperate, wild, and furious.”