fox

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A wild animal like a small dog, with reddish-brown fur, pointed ears, and a long bushy tail.

   A fox crept across the field at dusk.

2. 2
   noun

   A clever, cunning person.

   He's a sly old fox who always gets what he wants.

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Simplified etymology

Fox is an Old English word related to German Fuchs. Its reputation for cunning produced the late-16th-century verb meaning “trick,” while its reddish-brown color inspired the 19th-century use of foxed for books marked with brown spots; the American sense “attractive woman” dates from the early 1960s.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *púḱsos Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz Old English fox Middle English fox English fox From Middle English fox, from Old English fox (“fox”), from Proto-West Germanic *fuhs, from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz (“fox”), from Proto-Indo-European *púḱsos (“the tailed one”), possibly from *puḱ- (“tail”). Cognate with Scots fox (“fox”), North Frisian foos, fos (“fox”), Saterland Frisian Foaks (“fox”), West Frisian foks (“fox”), Dutch vos (“fox”), Low German vos (“fox”), German Fuchs (“fox”), Icelandic fóa (“fox”), Tocharian B päkā (“tail, chowrie”), Russian пух (pux, “down, fluff”…

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