vulpes

Forms

vulpēs f (genitive vulpis); third declension^[1] The older spelling volpēs is also found,^[2][3] and a nominative vulpis occurs in Petronius.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *wolp-i- (“fox”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(H)ulp-i- (“marten, cat”).^[3] The older spelling was ⟨volpēs⟩, and the Classical form is ⟨vulpēs⟩.^[3][2] De Vaan explains the Latin form as probably continuing the zero grade of the root, since Baltic and Persian also point to it; in Indo-Iranian the root underwent metathesis.^[3]

Cognate with Lithuanian vilpišỹs (“wild cat”), Avestan urupi- (“marten”) and Sanskrit लोपाश (lopāśá-, “jackal”).^[3] De Vaan considers the words for "fox" in other branches, Ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ (alṓpēx) and Lithuanian lãpė, probably unrelated,^[3] though the OLD and L&S still compare the Greek word.^[2][4]

Ancient grammarians explained the name as ⟨quasi volupes⟩, because the fox is “nimble of foot” and never runs a straight course.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on.^[3] In the Miles Gloriosus a character vows to track someone down like a hunting dog “until I have followed the fox by its traces”, the earliest citation the OLD gives for the sense “fox”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The fox stood for cunning: Horace and Persius speak of a fox hiding in a person's heart for a crafty mind.^[4][6] It entered proverbs: to “yoke foxes” (iungere vulpes) was said of any absurd undertaking,^[4][7] and vulpes pilum mutat, non mores, “the fox changes its coat, not its ways”, is reported by Suetonius.^[4] Pliny the Elder uses vulpes marina, the “sea fox”, for a shark, the thresher.^[2][4]

In Medieval Latin the word also named a siege engine^[8][9] and a game played on a board.^[9] It lives on in Italian volpe.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the fox.^[2][10]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has the proverbial “yoking of foxes” in the Eclogues.^[4][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses the fox for a crafty mind in the Ars Poetica.^[4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names the shark vulpes marina.^[2][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the nominative vulpis.^[2][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius reports the proverb that the fox changes its coat but not its ways.^[4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville derives it from “nimble-footed”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fox.^[2][4]
2. (figurative) cunning, craftiness; a crafty person.^[4][6]
3. vulpes marina: the thresher shark.^[2][4]
4. (Medieval Latin) A siege engine.^[8][9]
5. (Medieval Latin) A board game.^[9]

Word family

• vulpēcula
• vulpīnor
• vulpīnus
• vulpiō

Related words

• lupus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de