Etymologically
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furry

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈfɜː.ɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈfɜɹ.i/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English fur + -y.[2][3][4][5][6] Fur comes from the verb, Anglo-Norman *furrer, forrer (“to line, sheathe”) (modern French fourrer),[6][3] from fuerre (“sheath, scabbard”), from Frankish *fodr or another Germanic source,[3][6] from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“sheath”), the source also of Old High German fuotar (“a lining”), German Futter and Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐍂 (fōdr, “sword sheath”).[3][6] Etymonline takes the Germanic word to Proto-Indo-European *pa- (“to feed, protect”).[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OED's earliest record is the noun, a hairy caterpillar, in John Florio's Italian–English dictionary of 1598.[2] The adjective, made of fur or consisting of furs, follows in Milton's Brief History of Moscovia, written before 1674;[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1670s.[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective soon spread from things made of fur to animals covered with fur (1687, in Dryden) and people dressed in furs (1717).[2] Johnson (1755) gave the senses "covered with fur; dressed in fur" and "consisting of fur".[7] From 1739 it described a tongue or a surface coated with a furlike deposit, and in 1876, in Hardy, anything soft and fur-like.[2][8] The noun returned in American English for any fur-bearing animal in 1945.[2] From 1989, in a Usenet post, it named an enthusiast for animal characters with human personalities, often one who dresses up as such a character;[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1995.[3] On American campuses in the late 1990s furry could also mean an attractive woman.[9]

Timeline

  • 1598 – noun, a hairy caterpillar (obsolete).[2]
  • a1674 – made of fur, consisting of furs.[2][4]
  • 1687 – of animals, covered with fur.[2]
  • 1717 – of people, wearing furs.[2]
  • 1739 – coated with fur, of a tongue or surface.[2]
  • 1876 – soft and like fur.[2]
  • 1945 – noun, a fur-bearing animal.[2]
  • 1989 – noun, an enthusiast for anthropomorphic animal characters.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Covered with fur or something like it: a furry puppy.[8][4][2]
  2. Made of, or soft and fluffy like, fur.[8][4][2]
  3. Of the tongue, coated with a whitish layer; furred.[8][2]

Noun

  1. A person who is a fan of animal characters with human personalities, especially one who dresses up as such a character or adopts one as a persona.[8][2][3]
  2. (chiefly US, informal) A furry animal.[2]

Word family

  • furriness
  • furrily
  • furrier

Usage notes

The Furry or Furry Dance of Helston in Cornwall, a festival held on 8 May and the dance performed at it, has a separate source: the OED and the Shorter Oxford call it of uncertain origin, perhaps connected with fair and Latin fēria.[2][5][10] It is pronounced /ˈfʌri/ in British English.[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 g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  10. ^ 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)