touch [ME] A word from Old French tochier ‘to touch’. In modern French this is toucher, which is the source of touché [L19th], literally ‘touched!’, said in fencing to acknowledge a hit made by your opponent, and more generally in recognition of a good or clever point in a discussion. In the mid 19th century touch developed a number of slang meanings among criminals. It described various ways of getting money from people, either by stealing, especially pickpocketing, or by some con trick. A soft touch [E20th] was someone who was particularly easy to con or steal from, and even today the phrase is often used to describe someone who is always willing to lend money to a friend. Someone touched touched is emotionally moved [L16th] or from the late 17th century slightly mad or crazy. From the mid16th century a touchstone was a piece of jasper or other stone used for testing alloys of gold by observing the colour of the mark which they made on it. Nowadays a touchstone is usually a standard or criterion by which people judge or recognize something. Touchy [E17th], may not be directly from touch, though it has been influenced by the word. It was probably originally an alteration of tetchy (see test).