Word to the Wise: Irascible
by ETR (02/20/2008)
Someone who’s "irascible" (ih-RAS-uh-bul) is hot-tempered. The word is from the Latin for "prone to anger."
Example (as used by Jack Olsen in Hastened to the Grave): "The lawyer described his client as an irascible eighty-two-year-old eccentric who alternated between spinning fascinating tales about her past and cussing him out."