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Feb 9, 2011 This week's theme Words to describe people This week's words dyspeptic caitiff tetchy valetudinarian reticent Add your two cents' ... worth to our discussion on language and words. Or, if you wish, use paise, pence, yen, pesos, piasters, etc. Log on at our bulletin board Wordsmith Talk Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg tetchy PRONUNCIATION: (TECH-ee) MEANING: adjective: Easily annoyed; oversensitive. ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Middle English tache/teche (blemish). Earliest documented use: 1597. USAGE: "O comes across as tired and tetchy, and fed up with being unfairly treated by the press." So Who Wrote O?; Daily Mail (London, UK); Jan 21, 2011. Explore "tetchy" in the Visual Thesaurus. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1819-1891)

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