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Tetchy

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November 06, 2010, 22:08
Kalleh
Tetchy
I am reading a book by an English author, and she used the word tetchy. I hadn't heard it before, but it's in 25 online dictionaries so it's obviously common. Is it more used in England or is it common here too and I've just not heard it?
November 06, 2010, 23:40
tinman
quote:
Tetchy

No, I haven't heard it, though I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's used in the southern states. I have heard the U.S. variation touchy.
November 07, 2010, 01:18
BobHale
Pretty commonplace here.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
November 07, 2010, 06:42
<Proofreader>
I've heard southerners mention tetched, as a bit eccentric (loony, to you and me).
November 07, 2010, 07:00
zmježd
I would have imagined it an US regionalism (especially in the set phrase "a might tetchy"), but I guess I've just been exposed to too much Britannia ...


—Ceci n'est pas un seing.
November 07, 2010, 08:09
Geoff
IIRC, it was fairly common in the USA back in the 1950s, but is rare now. I think it was used in some of the old Warner Brothers cartoons, especially by Buggs Bunny.


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
November 07, 2010, 08:11
arnie
quote:
I've heard southerners mention tetched

I think that might be their version of "touched", as in, "touched by the moon".


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.