tetchy

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The Word of the Day for July 6 is:

tetchy   \TETCH-ee\   adjective
     : irritably or peevishly sensitive : touchy

Example sentence:
     Jeannette knew how tetchy her old friend Doris could sometimes be, so she 
stifled the urge to tease her about her dirty car.

Did you know?
     "Tetchy" is a word that may have been coined by Shakespeare -- its first 
known use in English occurs in _Romeo and Juliet_ (1592). Etymologists are not 
certain how the word came about, but some have suggested that it derives from 
"tetch," an obsolete noun meaning "habit." The similarity both in meaning and 
pronunciation to "touchy" might lead you to conclude that "tetchy" is related 
to it, but there is no conclusive evidence to suggest such a connection. The 
adjectives "teched" and "tetched," meaning "mentally unbalanced," are 
variations of "touched," and are probably also unrelated to "tetchy."