English
soreheaded
From sore + headed.
Proto-Indo-European *seh₂iro-
Proto-Germanic *sairaz ‘sore, painful’
Proto-West Germanic *sair ‘painful, sore’
Old English sār ‘ache, wound’
Middle English sor
English sore
Today it means
adj Having a tendency to be angry or irritable, easily offended; like a sorehead.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “soreheaded”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / soreheaded