peevish
Meanings
- Constantly complaining, especially in a childish way due to insignificant matters; fretful, whiny.
- Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant.
- Of weather: blustery, windy; also, of wind: cold and strong; bitter, sharp.
- Coy, modest.
- Foolish, silly.
- Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.
- Impulsive and unpredictable; capricious, fickle.
- Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.
- Out of one's mind; mad.
- Of a thing: evoking a feeling of distaste, horror, etc.
- Clever, skilful.
- Synonym of peevishly (“in a peevish manner: whiningly; irritably, petulantly; etc.”).
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
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.