Vulpine means of, relating to, or resembling a fox, and also implies being foxy or crafty. The adjective originates from the Latin word for 'fox'.
Vulpine is an adjective meaning foxlike or crafty, and relating to or resembling a fox. It comes from the Latin word for fox, 'vulpes'.
Word | vulpine |
---|---|
Date | December 3, 2016 |
Type | adjective |
Syllables | VUL-pine |
Etymology | In Walden (1854), Henry David Thoreau described foxes crying out "raggedly and demoniacally" as they hunted through the winter forest, and he wrote, "Sometimes one came near to my window, attracted by my light, barked a vulpine curse at me, and then retreated." Thoreau's was far from the first use of vulpine; English writers have been applying that adjective to the foxlike or crafty since at least the 15th century, and the Latin parent of our term, vulpinus (from the noun vulpes, meaning "fox"), was around long before that. |
Examples | "There is something Gatsby-esque about the whole story. [Bernie] Madoff is a clear proxy for Meyer Wolfsheim, the vulpine, self-satisfied criminal seducer." — Daniel Gross, Newsweek, 12 Jan. 2009 "Flashing a vulpine grin, he's not a typical hunk—but like Casanova, a maestro of stylish manners and clever entrapment, an incorrigible cad proud of his powers of improvisational manipulation." — Misha Berson, The Seattle Times, 30 Oct. 2016 |
Definition | 1 : of, relating to, or resembling a fox 2 : foxy, crafty |
Tags: wordoftheday::adjective
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