Etymologically
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fox

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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
  • 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