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testy (adj.)[testy 词源字典]: early 15c., "impetuous, rash," altered from Middle English testif "headstrong" (late 14c.), from Anglo-French testif, Old French testu (Modern French têtu) "stubborn, headstrong, obstinate," literally "heady," from teste "head" (see tete). Meaning "easily irritated, irascible" is first recorded 1520s. Related: Testily; testiness.[testy etymology, testy origin, 英语词源]
Tet (n.): Vietnamese lunar new year, 1885, short for Tet Nguyen Dan "feast of the first day." The North Vietnamese Tet Offensive in the U.S. Vietnam War began Jan. 30, 1968.
tetanus (n.): infectious disease, late 14c., from Latin tetanus "tetanus," from Greek tetanos "tetanus, muscular spasm," literally "a stretching, tension," from teinein "to stretch" (see tenet); "so called because the disease is characterized by violent spasms and stiffness of the muscles" [Barnhart]. Related: Tetanoid (adj.).
tetany (n.): 1890, from French tétanie "intermitent tetanus," from Modern Latin tetania (see tetanus).
tetched (adj.): 1930, U.S. colloquial variant of touched in the sense of "slightly crazy" (see touch (v.)).
tetchy (adj.): "easily irritated," 1592, teachie, in "Romeo & Juliet" I.iii.32; of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Middle English tatch "a mark, quality," derived via Old French from Vulgar Latin *tecca, from a Germanic source akin to Old English tacen (see token).
tete (n.): as a type of women's tall dressed hair or wig, 1756, from French tête "head," Old French teste, from Latin testa, literally "piece of earthenware, tile, potsherd; earthen pot, pitcher, jug; shell of shellfish," related to Latin testudo "tortoise" and texere "to weave" (compare Lithuanian tištas "vessel made of willow twigs;" see texture (n.)).

The "head" sense arose in Vulgar Latin, perhaps as a humorous use of the "jug, pot" meaning, or via Late Latin use of testa as "skull," from testa (capitis) "shell (of the head)." Compare German Kopf "head" from the root of English cup (n.).
tete-a-tete (n.): "a private meeting," from French tête-à-tête, literally "head-to-head," from Old French teste "head" (see tete). The adjective, "private, confidential, with none present but the persons concerned" is recorded from 1728; as an adverb from 1790.
tether (n.): late 14c., "rope for fastening an animal," not found in Old English, probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse tjoðr "tether," from Proto-Germanic *teudran (cognates: Danish tøir, Old Swedish tiuther, Swedish tjuder, Old Frisian tiader, Middle Dutch tuder, Dutch tuier "line, rope," Old High German zeotar "pole of a cart"), from PIE root *deu- "to fasten" + instrumentive suffix *-tro-. Figurative sense of "measure of one's limitations" is attested from 1570s.
tether (v.): late 14c. (implied in tethering), "confine by a tether," originally of grazing animals, from tether (n.). Figurative use also from late 14c. Related: Tethered.
tetherball (n.): also tether-ball, 1900, from tether (n.) + ball (n.1).
Tethys: name for the sea that anciently lay between Eurasia and Africa-Arabia, coined 1893 by German geologist Eduard Suess (1831-1914), from Tethys, name of a Greek sea goddess, sister and consort of Oceanus.
Teton (n.): member of a western Sioux people, 1806, from Dakota titonwan, literally "dwellers on the prairie," from thi + huwa. Not related to the Grand Teton mountain range.
tetra-: before vowels tetr-, word-forming element meaning "four," from Greek tetra-, combining form of tettares (Attic), tessares "the numeral four" (see four).
tetracycline (n.): 1952, with chemical suffix -ine (2) + tetracyclic "containing four fused hydrocarbon rings," from tetra- + cyclic (see cycle (n.)).
tetrad (n.): "the number four, collection of four things," 1650s, from Greek tetras (comb. form tetrad-) "group of four, number four" (see tetra-).
tetragrammaton (n.): c. 1400, from Greek (to) tetragrammaton "(the word) of four letters," from tetra- "four" (see four) + gramma (genitive grammatos) "letter, something written" (see -gram). The Hebrew divine name, transliterated as YHWH, usually vocalized in English as "Jehovah" or "Yahweh."
tetrahedron (n.): "triangular pyramid, solid figure contained by four triangular surfaces," 1560s, from Late Greek tetraedron, noun use of neuter of tetraedros (adj.) "four-sided," from tetra- "four" (see tetra-) + hedra "seat, base, chair, face of a geometric solid," from PIE root *sed- (1) "to sit" (see sedentary). Related: Tetrahedral.
tetralogy (n.): 1650s, from Greek tetralogia, from tetra- (see tetra-) + -logia (see -logy). A group of four dramatic compositions, originally three tragedies (the trilogia) and a Satyric play.
tetrameter (n.): 1610s, from Late Latin tetrametrus, from Greek tetrametron "verse of four measures" (generally trochaic), noun use of neuter of tetrametros (adj.) "having four measures," from tetra- "four" (see tetra-) + metron "measure" (see meter (n.2)).