Touchiest

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Extremely sensitive to physical contact or stimuli ; highly prone to feeling insulted or upset by remarks or situations
2. Having the greatest sensitivity when physically touched ; being easily annoyed or defensive about comments or actions
3. Characterized by heightened tactile responsiveness ; quick to take offense or become irritated by perceived slights

Etymology: "Touchiest" is simply the superlative of "touchy," so its story is really the story of the adjective it modifies. "Touchy" is a variant of an older word, "tetchy," which meant "cranky" or "easily annoyed" and was hard to handle. Over time the two forms drifted together: "touchy" picked up some of the sense of the verb "touch" in the sense of affecting or disturbing someone, which is how an easily upset person came to be described as one who is easily affected by a touch on a raw nerve. The ending "-y" also played a part. English speakers often attach it to nouns and verbs to suggest a quality, as in "milky" or "pushy," and the form "touchy" appears to have been shaped to look like that pattern, as though it described someone full of touch. The resulting word has the same sense of quick, prickly sensitivity that "tetchy" had, but the physical image of being touched is now what readers hear in it.

Synonyms: sensitive, irritable, testy

Antonyms: insensitive, calm, unemotional