uffish

English

Etymology

From its sound; Carroll explained the word as "a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish."

Pronunciation

• enPR: ŭf'ĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈʌfɪʃ/

Adjective

uffish (comparative more uffish, superlative most uffish)

1. (nonce word) grumpy, ill-tempered
   • 1872, Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky (poem in Through the Looking-Glass)

     And, as in uffish thought he stood, / The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, / Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, / And burbled as it came!

   • 1876, Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark […] , London: Macmillan, Fit the Fourth.⁠ The Hunting:

     The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow.

   • 1956, Lawrence Johnstone Burpee, Canadian geographical journal, volumes 52-53:

     Its great Cham was Wells, whose highly readable prose flowed easily between the line-drawings of behemoths in the coal swamps and Neanderthal man looking uffish.