vixen

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a female fox

   The vixen carried food back to the cubs hidden in the den.

2. 2
   noun

   a dated and insulting term for a quarrelsome or bad-tempered woman

   The novel's narrator unfairly dismisses the outspoken widow as a vixen.

Simplified etymology

Vixen, the term for a female fox, was originally fixen. A West Country pronunciation that changed initial f to v produced vixen, and that regional form became standard; by the late 16th century the word was also being applied to a bad-tempered woman.

From Middle English fixen and Old English fyxe or a related feminine formation meaning 'female fox.' The initial f became v in southern English dialects, and that voiced form entered standard English. The disparaging sense applied to women developed by metaphor.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary