peevish

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*paw-“to hit, strike”
2. Latin · derived fromexpavidus“extremely frightened or horrified”
3. Old French · derived fromespave“(adjective) of an animal: stray; of a person: foreign; (noun) flotsam; lost property”
4. Middle French · derived fromespave
5. Middle French · derived from*expaive
6. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*wert-“to rotate; to turn”
7. Latin · derived fromperversus“corrupted, perverted, subverted; overthrown”
8. Middle English · inherited frompievish
9. English todaypeevish

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English pievish, peuysche, pevish, pevysh (“capricious, wilful; perverse, wayward”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from one of the following: * From an unattested Old French word, from Latin perversus (“corrupted, perverted, subverted; overthrown”), the perfect passive participle of pervertō (“to corrupt, subvert; to overthrow”), from per- (prefix meaning ‘intensively, thoroughly’) + vertō (“to turn; to turn upside down, overturn, overthrow, subvert”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to rotate; to turn”)). However, the Oxford English Dictionary says this derivation “presents some formal difficulties”. * From Middle French *expaive + -ish (similar to; somewhat, rather). *Expaive is an unattested variant of Middle French espave, Old French espave (“(adjective) of an animal: stray; of a person: foreign; (noun) flotsam; lost property”) (referring to the behaviour of stray animals; modern French épave), from Latin expavidus (“extremely frightened or horrified”), from ex- (intensifying prefix) + pavidus (“fearful, terrified; quaking, trembling; shy, timid”) (from paveō (“to be afraid; fear; to quake or tremble with fear”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *paw- (“to hit, strike”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives)). The adverb is derived from the adjective.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 16th c. Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant.
• 16th–17th c. Foolish, silly.
• 16th–17th c. Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.
• 15th–17th c. Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.
• 16th c. Out of one's mind; mad.
• 16th c. Of a thing: evoking a feeling of distaste, horror, etc.
• 17th–18th c. Clever, skilful.