foxy

Etymology

It is formed from English fox + -y.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Middle English had foxish in the sense "crafty" from the late 14th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Like a fox, especially crafty or cunning: 1528, in the satire Rede me and be nott Wrothe.^[2][5] Etymonline gives the 1520s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the fox's cunning the word moved to the fox's colour: in painting it described colouring with too much red from 1783,^[2] and anything fox-coloured, reddish brown or yellow, from 1850.^[2] Etymonline dates the colour senses to the 18th century.^[3] From the colour, foxy came to describe discoloured or spotted materials (1807), and also beer or wine that had turned sour in fermentation (1847).^[2] In America it described grapes and wine with the coarse flavour of the fox grape (1864).^[2][7] In English dialects the word could mean deceptive of the weather (from 1876), sandy-haired, or spotted with mould.^[8][2] American student slang of 1896 used foxy for neat, stylish and attractive,^[9] and the sense "sexually attractive", said of a woman, is dated 1895 by Etymonline^[3] and 1913 by the OED.^[2]

Timeline

• 1528 – like a fox; crafty, cunning.^[2][5]
• 1783 – of a painting, too reddish in colour.^[2]
• 1807 – discoloured or defective in colour or quality.^[2]
• 1847 – of beer or wine, turned sour in fermentation.^[2]
• 1850 – fox-coloured, reddish brown.^[2]
• 1864 – of grapes, having the flavour of the fox grape.^[2]
• 1876 – of weather, deceptively bright.^[2][8]
• 1896 – stylish, attractive.^[9] Etymonline dates the sense to 1895; the OED, of a woman, to 1913.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Like a fox, especially in being sly or crafty: a foxy old lawyer.^{[10][7][5][2]}
2. (slang) Sexually attractive.^[10][7][2]
3. Of a reddish-brown colour.^{[10][7][5][2]}
4. Of paper, wood and the like, spotted or discoloured, as by mildew or age; foxed.^[10][7][2]
5. Of wine, having the sharp flavour of fox grapes.^[10][7][2]
6. Smelling strongly like a fox.^[10]
7. Of oats, musty after getting wet and fermenting.^[10]

Word family

• foxily
• foxiness
• unfoxy

Usage notes

The OED has a second foxy (1880), referring to the brown spots on old paper (fox-marks).^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins