The story
- Middle English · derived fromtatch“blemish”
- Scots · derived fromtache“blotch, fault”
- English todaytetchy
Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. Perhaps coined by Shakespeare. Also variously derived from English tetch (“tantrum, fit of anger”); from Scots tache (“blotch, fault”); from Middle English tatch (“blemish”) &c. under influence from touchy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.