Q.
This particular idiom refers to people who are perennially cranky, irritable, quick to go off. Why? Because they feel they have been ill-treated in the past.

Where does this phrase originate?

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A.

Chips on shoulders stem from a call to fighting in the 19^th Century US. A person who was in the mood for a fight would put a chip of wood on their shoulder. “Who has the guts to knock it off?”

A similarly fight-ready person (or a soon to be not so innocent bystander) would knock off the shoulder wood, and the mayhem would begin.

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