vixen

vix·en  (vksn)

n.

1. A female fox.

2. A woman regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, or malicious.

---

[From dialectal alteration of Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe.]

---

vixen·ish adj.

vixen·ish·ly adv.

vixen·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 (vt). 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.

---

vixen [ˈvɪksən]

n

1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Animals) a female fox

2. a quarrelsome or spiteful woman

[C15 fixen; related to Old English fyxe, feminine of fox; compare Old High German fuhsīn]

vixenish  adj

vixenishly  adv

vixenishness  n

vixenly  adv & adj

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	vixen - a malicious woman with a fierce temper harpy, hellcat disagreeable woman, unpleasant woman - a woman who is an unpleasant person
	2.	vixen - a female fox fox - alert carnivorous mammal with pointed muzzle and ears and a bushy tail; most are predators that do not hunt in packs

---

vixen

noun shrew, fury, spitfire, virago, harpy, scold, harridan, termagant (rare), hellcat, Xanthippe, ballbreaker (slang) She claims she has been caricatured as a vampish vixen by the press.

Translations

vixen [ˈvɪksn] N

1. (= female fox) → zorra f, raposa f

2. (pej) (= bad-tempered woman) → arpía f, bruja f

---

vixen [ˈvɪks^ən] n

(= fox) → renarde f

(pejorative) (= woman) → mégère f

---

vixen

n (Zool) → Füchsin f; (fig) → zänkisches Weib, Drachen m (inf)

---

vixen [ˈvɪksn] n → volpe f femmina (pej) (woman) → vipera

---

vixen

n vixen [ˈviksn]

a female fox The vixen was followed by her cubs. jakkalswyfie ثَعْلَبَه лисица liška hunræv die Füchsin θηλυκή αλεπού zorra emarebane روباه ماده naaraskettu renarde שוּעָלָה लोमड़ी lisica nőstény róka rubah betina refalæða volpe (femmina) 雌ぎつね 암여우 lapė lapsu mātīte musang betina moervos hunnrev, revetispe lisica raposa vulpe самка лисы líška lisica lisica rävhona สุนัขจิ้งจอกตัวเมีย dişi tilki 母狐 лисиця مادہ لومڑي con chồn cái 雌狐狸