vixen
/ˈvɪk.sən/ noun, proper noun
Forms vixens fixen vixon
- noun A female fox.
- noun A malicious, quarrelsome or temperamental woman.
- noun (colloquial) A racy or salacious woman who is sexually attractive; any attractive woman.
- noun (colloquial) A wife who has sex with other men with her husband's consent.
- proper noun The fourth reindeer of Santa Claus.
Synonyms
she-fox foxess battle axe bitch brim brimstone cat cockatrice crow dragon faggot fishwife harpy harridan hellcat jade nag nudnik scold she-devil
Etymology
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).
First attested in the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. From vixen.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A female fox. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
- noun A cross, ill-tempered person; --formerly used of either sex, now only of a woman. Barrow.
Etymology [AS. fixen a she-fox, for fyxen, fem. of fox. See Fox.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “vixen”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details