# peevish

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈpiːvɪʃ/

## Definitions
1. Constantly complaining, especially in a childish way due to insignificant matters; fretful, whiny.
2. Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant.
3. Of weather: blustery, windy; also, of wind: cold and strong; bitter, sharp.
4. Coy, modest.
5. Foolish, silly.
6. Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.
7. Impulsive and unpredictable; capricious, fickle.
8. Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.
9. Out of one's mind; mad.
10. Of a thing: evoking a feeling of distaste, horror, etc.
11. Clever, skilful.

## 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.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/peevish