| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| tetchy |
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| SYLLABICATION: | tetch·y |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  t ch  |
| VARIANT FORMS: | also tech·y |
| ADJECTIVE: | Inflected forms: tetch·i·er, tetch·i·est
Peevish; testy: “As a critic gets older, he or she usually grows more tetchy and limited in responses” (James Wolcott). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Probably from Middle English tache, teche, blemish (influenced by touchy), from Old French tache, teche, from Vulgar Latin *tacca, from Gothic taikns, sign. See deik- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | tetchi·ly —ADVERB
tetchi·ness —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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