- fox (n.) - Old English fox, from West Germanic *fukhs (cf. Old
Saxon vohs, Middle Dutch and Dutch vos, Old High German fuhs,
German Fuchs, Old Norse foa, Gothic fauho), from Proto-Germanic
base *fuh-, corresponding to PIE *puk- "tail" (cf. Sanskrit
puccha- "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of words for
"fox" in Welsh (llwynog, from llwyn "bush"); Spanish (raposa,
from rabo "tail"); and Lithuanian (uodegis "fox," from uodega
"tail"). Metaphoric extension to "clever person" is early 13c.
Meaning "sexually attractive woman" is from 1940s; but foxy in
this sense is recorded from 1895. - Algonquian people,
translating French renards, which itself may be a translation of
an Iroquoian term meaning "red fox people." Their name for
themselves is /meškwahki:-haki/ "red earths." French renard
"fox" is from Reginhard, the name of the fox in old Northern
European fables (cf. Low German Reinke de Vos), originally
"strong in council, wily." - fox (v.) - 1560s (but perhaps
implied in Old English foxung "foxlike wi