Petulance, Petulancy, n.
Etymology: [L. petulania: cf. F. pétulance. See Petulant.]
The quality or state of being petulant; temporary peevishness; pettishness; capricious ill humor. "The petulancy of our words." B. Jonson. Like pride in some, and like petulance in others. Clarendon. The lowering eye, the petulance, the frown. Cowper.
Syn. -- Petulance, Peevishness. -- Peevishness implies the permanence of a sour, fretful temper; petulance implies temporary or capricious irritation.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for petulance; he lists it under anger.
Where he writes about it:
Impatience, fretfulness, irritation, peevishness, pettishness, petulance, and vexation express the slighter forms of anger. — from anger
Irritation, petulance, and vexation are temporary and for immediate cause. — from anger