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.

querulous • atrabilious • bad-tempered • bilious • bitchy • brainish • cantankerous • carnaptious • choleric • crabbit • crabby • cranky • crotchety • dyspeptic • edgy • fantoddish • fiery • fractious • fretful • grumpy • grotchy • grouchy • hissy • hot-livered • hot-tempered • hotheaded • huffy • humpy • ill-natured • ill-tempered • irascible • irritable • liverish • out of sorts • ornery (chiefly US)} • peevish • pettish • petulant • prickly • quick-tempered • raspy • ratty • short-tempered • snappish • snappy • snippety • snippish • snippy • snitchy • splenetic • stressy • surly • temperamental • testy • tetchy • tetty • thin-skinned • thorny • touchy • twitchy