fox

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /fɒks/, US /fɑːks/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English fox,^[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz (“fox”),^[2] the source also of Old Saxon vohs, Dutch vos, German Fuchs, Old Norse fóa and Gothic fauho,^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *puk- (“tail”),^[2][4] the source also of Sanskrit púccha- “tail”.^[2][3][4] The name may mean “the tailed one”,^[4] and Barnhart suggests taboo may have been involved.^[3] The bushy tail also inspired the words for “fox” in Welsh (llwynog) and Spanish (raposa).^[2] It is related to vixen.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal: about 825 in the OED,^[6] before 830 in Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The metaphor of a clever, crafty person is from late Old English.^[2][6] A fox-tail was anciently one of the badges of a fool (late 14th century),^[2] and the fur of the fox is from 1501.^[6] The verb “to delude” is from the 1660s,^[2] with Old English foxung “craftiness” implying the notion,^[2] and Barnhart has foxing, “clever deceit”, before 1250;^[3] the participle foxed meant “drunk” from the 1610s^[2] and, in booksellers' catalogues, “stained with rusty marks” by 1827.^[2] An attractive woman is from the 1940s in Etymonline^[2] and 1963 in the OED, as American slang,^[6] though foxy in this sense is from 1895.^[2] Oscar Wilde called fox-hunting “the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 825 – the animal.^[6]
• late Old English – a crafty person.^[2]
• 1501 – fox fur.^[6]
• 1610s – foxed, drunk.^[2]
• 1660s – verb, to delude.^[2]
• 1827 – foxed, of books.^[2]
• 1940s – an attractive woman.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A carnivorous mammal related to the dog, with upright ears, a pointed snout and a long bushy tail.
2. The fur of a fox.
3. A crafty, sly or clever person.
4. (slang) A sexually attractive woman.
5. Fox, a member of an Algonquian people living with the Sauk.

Verb

1. To trick by cunning; to outwit.
2. To baffle or confuse.

Word family

• foxlike
• foxed
• foxing
• outfox

Related words

• vixen
• foxy
• foxglove
• foxhole
• foxtrot

Usage notes

The name of the Fox people translates French Renards, perhaps itself a translation of an Iroquoian term; they call themselves “red earths”.^[2]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press