Badtempered

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a propensity to exhibit irritation and anger frequently
2. Regularly demonstrating signs of irritability and a quick temper
3. Easily showing annoyance or becoming angry without much provocation

Etymology: "Bad-tempered" is a compound of "bad" and "temper," and the hyphenless "badtempered" is simply the same word written as one run-on term. "Temper" comes from Latin "temperare," meaning to mix in due proportion, and in English it came to refer to a person's basic disposition or mixture of humours. Medieval physicians held that health depended on a balance of four bodily fluids, and a person whose balance had tipped was said to be out of temper. Over time "temper" narrowed from general character to a state of mind, and "bad temper" came to describe a habitual tendency toward irritability. The hyphen is the usual form in dictionaries, and the closed spelling is an accepted variant of it. Since the first element is the adjective "bad," the word works as a single modifier before a noun, which is why the hyphen helps readers parse it.

Synonyms: irritable, grumpy, cross, fretful, testy

Antonyms: good-natured, pleasant, easygoing, affable, cheerful