shirty?

[Michael Quinion]

> In todays SF Chronicle, in Tim Goodman's TV column:
>
> "Maybe we've been watching BBC America too much, but the whole idea
> of Anna Nicole makes us kind of shirty."
>
> Brit slang?  And what does it mean?

British informal, rather than slang, I'd say, as it has been around
since the 1840s and is well-established. It means bad-tempered or
annoyed. It may be linked with expressions like "get somebody's shirt
out" (meaning to annoy someone to the point where he strips off ready
for a fight) and "keep your shirt on" (though this is usually said to
be American in origin), even though these two are actually recorded a
little later.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>