Itchy means making you want to scratch. An itchy jumper, itchy skin, an itchy label.
It describes both the sensation and the thing causing it: itchy skin and an itchy jumper. Itching is caused by nerve fibres separate from those carrying pain, which is why scratching relieves it and why it can be maddening out of all proportion to its seriousness. Note itchy feet, meaning restlessness and a wish to travel; and that scratching an itch makes it worse within about a minute.
1adjectiveitchyMaking you want to scratch.
“The mosquito bites on my legs are really itchy.”
2adjectiverestlessRestless and wanting to move on.
“After two years in the same town, she started to get itchy feet.”
itchy is a quality of irritation.
Old English gyccig comes from giccan, to itch, a Germanic word. The verb, the noun and the adjective have all stayed in use for a thousand years without any borrowing.
Old English
ġyċċiġ — itchy
Middle English
*yicchy
English, today
itchy
From Middle English yicchy, ȝicchi, from Old English ġyċċiġ (“itchy”), equivalent to itch + y. Cognate with Scots yeukie (“itchy”), West Frisian jokkerich (“itchy”), Dutch jeukachtig and jeukerig (“itchy”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA