fox: [OE] Fox probably means literally ‘tailed animal’ – the fox’s brush being perhaps its most distinctive feature. It has been traced back to a prehistoric Indo-European *puk-, which also produced Sanskrit púcchas ‘tail’. In West Germanic this gave *fukhs, from which come German fuchs, Dutch vos, and English fox. The fox is also named after its tail in Spanish (raposa ‘fox’ is a derivative of rabo ‘tail’) and in Welsh (llwynog ‘fox’ comes from llwyn ‘bush’ – that is, ‘bushy tail’).
fox (n.)
Old English fox "a fox," from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz "fox" (cognates Old Saxon vohs, Middle Dutch and Dutch vos, Old High German fuhs, German Fuchs, Old Norse foa, Gothic fauho), from Proto-Germanic *fuh-, from PIE *puk- "tail" (source also of Sanskrit puccha- "tail").
The bushy tail also inspired words for "fox" in Welsh (llwynog, from llwyn "bush"); Spanish (raposa, from rabo "tail"); and Lithuanian (uodegis, from uodega "tail"). Metaphoric extension to "clever person" was in late Old English. Meaning "sexually attractive woman" is from 1940s; but foxy in this sense is recorded from 1895. A fox-tail was anciently one of the badges of a fool (late 14c.).
A late Old English translation of the Medicina de Quadrupedibus of Sextus Placitus advises, for women "who suffer troubles in their inward places, work for them into a salve a foxes limbs and his grease, with old oil and with tar; apply to the womens places; quickly it healeth the troubles." It also recommends, for sexual intercourse without irritation, "the extremest end of a foxes tail hung upon the arm." Rubbing a fox's testicles on warts was supposed a means to get rid of them.
Fox
name of an Algonquian people (confederated with the Sac after 1760), translating French renards, which itself may be a translation of an Iroquoian term meaning "red fox people." Their name for themselves is /me?kwahki:-haki/ "red earths." French renard "fox" is from Reginhard, the name of the fox in old Northern European fables (as in Low German Reinke de Vos, but Chaucer in The Nun's Priest's Tale calls him Daun Russell); it is Germanic and means literally "strong in council, wily."
fox (v.)
1660s, "to delude" (perhaps implied in Old English foxung "fox-like wile, craftiness"), from fox (n.). The same notion is implied in Old English verbal noun foxung "fox-like wile, craftiness;" and Middle English had foxerie "wiliness, trickery, deceit." Foxed in booksellers' catalogues (1847) means "stained with fox-colored marks" (rusty red-brown). In other contexts the past-participle adjective typically meant "drunk" (1610s).
雙語例句
1. It shows a fox being disembowelled by a pack of hounds.
畫面中一只狐貍正被一群獵狗撕咬得腸子外流。
來自柯林斯例句
2. "Ah, Captain Fox," Martin McGuinness said affably. "Nice to see you again."
“啊，?？怂股衔?，”馬丁·麥吉尼斯親切地說，“很高興再次見到您。”
來自柯林斯例句
3. Fox, badger, weasel and stoat are regularly seen here.
狐貍、獾、黃鼠狼和白鼬在這里很常見。
來自柯林斯例句
4. James Fox is best known as the author of White Mischief.
詹姆斯·?？怂挂浴队恰芬粫顬槌雒?
來自柯林斯例句
5. Even from a distance the effect of his fox costume was stunning.