Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “bitchy” come from?

Bitchy derives from English bitch plus the suffix -y, which comes from Middle French -ie, from Latin -ia, ultimately tracing to Proto-Indo-European -kos, a suffix used to form adjectives.

bitchy (English): Spiteful or malevolent; catty; malicious;...

Definitions

  1. Spiteful or malevolent; catty; malicious;...

Ancestry of “bitchy”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-yAdded to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives...
2Middle English-yDesignates an adjective, in many cases formed by...
3Old English-iġ-y, -ic
4Proto-West Germanic-gForms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a...
5Proto-Germanic-gaz-y
6Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic

Words derived from “bitchy”

  • bitchiness
  • bitchily
  • bitchy-pants
  • unbitchy
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →