tetchous, a. U.S. dial.
(ˈtɛtʃəs)
Also tetchious, tetchus.
[f. tetchy a.: see -ous.]
= tetchy, techy a. 1.
| 1890 Dialect Notes I. 66 Tetchus,..tetchy. 1893 H. A. Shands Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi 62 Tetchous.., common among negroes and illiterate whites for tetchy. Used also in Kentucky. 1913 H. Kephart Our Southern Highlanders xiii. 294 A choleric or fretful person is tetchious. 1948 A. Lomax in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 484/1 That's what makes the Negro so tetchious till today. 1959 W. Faulkner Mansion iii. 58 A respectability that delicate and tetchous that wouldn't nothing else suit. |