ill temper

(See also ANGRINESS.)

get up on the wrong side of the bed To be grouchy, peevish, or ill-tempered. Most probably this is another holdover from ancient superstitions associating the right side with good omens and fortune, the left with evil and ill luck. The transference to temperament and mode of arising is centuries old:

have a worm in one’s tongue To be quarrelsome or dyspeptic; to be irritable or grouchy. Dogs suffering from worms are unfriendly and disagreeable just as one with a figurative “wormy” tongue is spiteful and surly. This obsolete expression was used by Samuel Butler in Upon Modern Critics:

like a bear with a sore head Irritable, peevish; in a disagreeable mood. The analogy here is self-evident:

This phrase seems to have been shortened at some point to the more common sorehead.

out of sorts Irritable, short-tempered; low-spirited, depressed; under the weather, slightly unhealthy. The origin of this expression is unknown. Some speculate that it derives from the literal typographical out of sorts meaning ‘out of type.’ Only a considerable stretch of the imagination renders this explanation plausible. Out of sorts has been popular since the early 17th century.

This expression can also refer to things and situations, implying that something is amiss or not functioning properly.

serpent’s tongue A shrewish disposition; a tendency toward vicious, vitriolic speech marked by scathing sarcasm. This expression appeared in Shakespeare’s Midsu mmer Night’s Dream (V, i):

This phrase, clearly referring to a snake’s forked, venomous tongue, was frequently employed in 18th-and 19th-century poetry.

sorehead A poor loser; one who is disgruntled or dissatisfied. The term seems to be an abbreviated version of the phrase like a bear with a sore head. The current meaning of this word is said to have come into use during the presidential campaign of 1848.