ox

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English oxe,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English oxa, plural oxan,^[3][4][5][6] from Proto-West Germanic *ohsō, from Proto-Germanic *uhsô.^[7][8] Its Germanic cognates include Old Frisian oxa, Old Saxon ohso, Middle Dutch osse and modern Dutch os, Old High German ohso and modern German Ochse, Old Norse oxi and uxi, Swedish oxe, Danish okse and Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃𐌰 (auhsa).^{[6][4][9][10]} Outside Germanic it is related to Welsh ych, Middle Irish oss (“stag”), Tocharian B okso (“ox”) and Sanskrit उक्षन् (ukṣán, “bull”),^{[9][4][6][11]} which go back to Proto-Indo-European *uksḗn, a word for a male animal.^[7][3][9] Etymonline and Klein derive this from a root meaning "to sprinkle", seen in a Sanskrit verb meaning "he sprinkles", so that the ox would be the "besprinkler", the one that emits semen;^{[3][9][12][13]} Ayto treats the link as speculation, and Klein and Etymonline connect the root further with Ancient Greek ὑγρός (hugrós, “wet, moist”) and Latin ūmor (“fluid, moisture”), the source of humor.^[14][9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The domestic bovine animal: the word is first recorded before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[4][6] In Middle English oxe appears probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle and in Layamon's Brut.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that whatever the original "male animal" sense, it had been lost by the Germanic stage, when the word was kept for a castrated bull.^[14] The word was used both of cattle in general and especially of castrated males kept for pulling loads or for meat,^[3][6] and already in Old English it also named wild or other heavy-bodied bovines.^[6][3] Johnson (1755) called it "the general name for black cattle".^[15] Figurative uses began in the 16th century: the black ox, misfortune or the cares of life, chiefly in the black ox has trod on his foot, from 1546 (by the 1540s in Etymonline), now archaic;^[6][3] ox for a fool from 1566;^[6] and the ox as a proverbial type of strength or stubbornness, as in as strong as an ox, from 1677.^[6] Green's Dictionary of Slang records ox for a big, clumsy or thuggish man from the mid-19th century, with an early example of "insensible ox" in Congreve (1694).^[16] The compound oxtail goes back to Old English oxan tægl in the laws of Ine.^[4][5] In dialect, compounds such as ox-roast (the statute fair at Birmingham, where oxen were roasted in the street) were recorded in Warwickshire.^[17] The place name Oxford is Old English Oxnaford, the ford of the oxen.^[13]

Timeline

• before 830 – oxa, the domestic ox, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[4][6]
• Old English – any of various wild or other heavily built bovines.^[6][3]
• probably before 1200 – Middle English oxe, plural oxen.^[4]
• 1546 – the black ox, adversity, misfortune (now archaic).^[6][3]
• 1566 – a fool.^[6]
• 1677 – a type of strength or obstinacy, as in as strong as an ox.^[6]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as the general name for black cattle.^[15]
• 1850 – a big, dull or thuggish man.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A domestic bovine animal, Bos taurus; especially an adult castrated male kept as a draught animal or for its meat: A pair of oxen pulled the plough across the field.^[18][12][6]
2. Any of various related wild or domesticated animals of the genus Bos or near it, such as the yak or zebu.^[18][12][6]
3. A big, strong, clumsy or slow-witted person: Watch where you're going, you great ox!^[12][16][6]
4. as strong as an ox: very strong.^[6]
5. the black ox (archaic): misfortune, hardship or the cares of age.^[6][3][15]

Word family

• oxlike
• oxblood
• oxbow
• oxcart
• oxeye
• oxheart
• oxpecker
• oxtail

Related words

• aurochs
• humor
• Oxford

Usage notes

Oxen is the only plural in general English use that keeps the Old English weak plural ending -an;^[6][19] Old and Middle English also had a plural exen, with a changed vowel, and a plural oxes, found from the 14th century, survives only in regional and nonstandard use.^[6][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray