quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- testy[testy 词源字典]
- testy: [14] Testy means etymologically ‘heady’. It was borrowed from Anglo-Norman testif, a derivative of Old French teste ‘head’ (ancestor of modern French tête). This in turn went back to Latin testa ‘tile, earthenware pot’ (a relative of testum, from which English gets test), which in the post-classical period was used humorously for ‘head’. English acquired testy in the sense ‘headstrong, impetuous’, but by the 16th century it had shifted via ‘impatient’ to ‘irritable’.
=> test[testy etymology, testy origin, 英语词源] - testy (adj.)
- early 15c., "impetuous, rash," altered from Middle English testif "headstrong" (late 14c.), from Anglo-French testif, Old French testu (Modern French têtu) "stubborn, headstrong, obstinate," literally "heady," from teste "head" (see tete). Meaning "easily irritated, irascible" is first recorded 1520s. Related: Testily; testiness.