Touchy means easily offended. A touchy subject, he is very touchy about it, do not be touchy.
It describes both people and subjects: a touchy subject is one that makes people touchy. It is milder and more sympathetic than prickly. Touchy-feely is a separate and dismissive phrase meaning emphasising emotion and physical closeness, usually said of training courses. Note that touchy about is the standard construction; and that touchy has nothing to do with touch in the sense of feeling, though it looks as if it should.
1adjectivetouchyEasily offended.
“He is touchy about it and always has been.”
2adjectivecauseLikely to cause offence, of a subject.
“Religion can be a touchy topic at dinner parties, so I avoid it.”
touchy is a quality of sensitivity.
Also accepted in games: sensitive
Touchy is not really about touch. It is a variant of the older tetchy, meaning cranky or hard to handle, which drifted towards touch until it looked like touch with a y on the end.
Proto-Indo-European
*dewk-
Old French
tochier — to touch
Middle English
touchen
English
touch
English, today
touchy
A variant of earlier tetchy (“cranky, easily annoyed, difficult to handle”), under influence from some senses of touch (“affect, disturb”) and simulating touch + y. touch comes from Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish tukkōn (“to knock, strike, touch”), from Proto-Germanic tukkōną (“to tug, grab, grasp”), from Proto-Indo-European dewk- (“to draw, pull, lead”). Largely displaced native rinen, from hrīnan (whence Modern English rine). Doublet of tuck. 2 Cognate with Old High German zochhōn, zuhhōn (“to grasp, take, seize, snatch”) (whence German zucken (“to jerk, flinch”)), German Low German tucken, tocken (“to fidget, twitch, pull up, entice, throb, knock, repeatedly tap”), Middle Dutch tocken, tucken (“to touch, entice”) (whence Dutch tokkelen (“to strum, pluck”)), Old English tucian, tūcian (“to disturb, mistreat”) (whence Modern tuck). Compare also Old High German tokkōn, tockōn (“to abut, collide”). More at tuck.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA