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vixen - 4 dictionary results
vix⋅en
[vik-suh
n] 
–noun
| 1. | a female fox. |
| 2. | an ill-tempered or quarrelsome woman. |
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME (south); r. earlier fixen, ME (north), for OE fyxe, fem. of fox fox (cf. fyxen (adj.) pertaining to a fox, OHG fuhsin (n.) vixen)
1375–1425; late ME (south); r. earlier fixen, ME (north), for OE fyxe, fem. of fox fox (cf. fyxen (adj.) pertaining to a fox, OHG fuhsin (n.) vixen)
Related forms:
vix⋅en⋅ish, vix⋅en⋅ly, adjective
Synonyms:
2. shrew, scold, virago, harpy, termagant.
2. shrew, scold, virago, harpy, termagant.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To vixen
| vix·en (vĭk'sən) n.
[From dialectal alteration of Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe.] vix'en·ish adj., vix'en·ish·ly adv., vix'en·ish·ness n. Word History: Why does the word fox begin with f but its female counterpart, vixen, begin with v? The answer lies in English dialects. In the speech of Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall, counties of southern England, words that begin with the voiceless fricative sounds (f) and (s) are pronounced instead with voicing, as (v) and (z). (The local rendering of the county name Somerset, in fact, is "Zomerzet.") The voicing is due to a Middle English sound change and may have roots even earlier. At least three examples of this dialectal pronunciation have entered standard English: vat, vane, and vixen. The first of these is a variant of an earlier word fat; the pronunciation with (f) was still used in the 19th century before being displaced by the southern pronunciation (vāt). Vane, which used to mean "flag," has a cognate in the German word for "flag," Fahne, showing the original f. Vixen, finally, represents the southern pronunciation of a word that goes back to Old English fyxe, the feminine of fox. It was formed by a change in the root vowel of fox and the addition of a suffix -e or -en. Besides being one of the rare southern English dialect forms to have come into standard English, vixen is also the only survival of this type of feminine noun in the modern language. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Vixen
Vix"en\, n. [AS. fixen a she-fox, for fyxen, fem. of fox. See Fox.]1. A female fox. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] 2. A cross, ill-tempered person; -- formerly used of either sex, now only of a woman. --Barrow. She was a vixen when she went to school. --Shak.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : vixen
Spanish:
zorra,
German:
die Füchsin,
Japanese:
雌ぎつね
vixen
O.E. *fyxen (implied in adj. fyxan), fem. of fox (see fox, and cf. M.H.G. vühsinne, Ger. füchsin). Solitary English survival of the Germanic feminine suffix -en, -in (cf. O.E. gyden "goddess;" mynecen "nun," from munuc "monk;" wlyfen "she-wolf"). The fig. sense "ill-tempered woman" is attested from 1575. The spelling shift from -f- to -v- began late 1500s (see V).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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