English
vixen
Vixen comes from Middle English fixen, and goes back to Old English *fyxen.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*fyxenreconstructed
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fixen
- Englishearliest quotation 1749vixen
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*fyxenreconstructed
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fixen
- Englishearliest quotation 1749vixen
Earliest quotation: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones: “He was prudent and industrious, and so good a…”
The story
Alteration of earlier fixen, from Middle English fixen, fixene, from Old English *fyxen (compare also Old English fyxe (‘female fox’)), from Proto-West Germanic *fuhsini, from Proto-Germanic *fuhsinī; the voiced v- comes from the Southern dialectal forms of Middle English. Alternatively, from the Old English adjective fyxen (‘of the fox’), as in the phrase fixen hȳd (“fox skin”; compare Middle English foxen fox).disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.
Linked words
through Middle English fixen
Today it means
noun A female fox.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English *fyxen / vixen