Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

peevish

UK /ˈpiːvɪʃ/ · US /ˈpivɪʃ/ adjective, adverb

Forms pevish pievish

  1. adjective Constantly complaining, especially in a childish way due to insignificant matters; fretful, whiny. “Due to the long wait, there were several peevish patients in the doctor’s waiting room.”
  2. adjective Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant. “I would rather figure things out on my own than ask that peevish librarian for help.”
  3. adjective (Canada, Northern England, figurative) Of weather: blustery, windy; also, of wind: cold and strong; bitter, sharp.
  4. adjective Coy, modest.
  5. adjective Foolish, silly.
  6. adjective Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.
  7. adjective Impulsive and unpredictable; capricious, fickle.
  8. adjective Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.
  9. adverb (obsolete) Synonym of peevishly (“in a peevish manner: whiningly; irritably, petulantly; etc.”).

Synonyms

querulous atrabilious bad-tempered bilious bitchy brainish cantankerous carnaptious choleric crabbit crabby cranky crotchety dyspeptic edgy fantoddish fiery fractious fretful grumpy irritable nettlesome peckish pettish petulant scratchy testy tetchy techy

Antonyms

unpeevish expressionless happy calm impassive patient phlegmatic stoic stoical tolerant uncomplaining unflappable

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.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant. "Her peevish babe." Wordsworth.
  2. adjective Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.

Etymology [OE. pevische; of uncertain origin, perh. from a word imitative of the noise made by fretful children + -ish.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “peevish”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details