Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *púḱsos
3. Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz
4. Old English fox
5. Middle English fox
6. English fox
7. From Middle English fox, from Old English fox (“fox”), from Proto-West Germanic *fuhs, from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz (“fox”), from Proto-Indo-European *púḱsos (“the tailed one”), possibly from *puḱ- (“tail”).
8. Cognates
9. Cognate with Yola vox, voxe (“fox”), North Frisian foos (“fox”), Saterland Frisian Foaks (“fox”), West Frisian foks (“fox”), Alemannic German Fuchs, Fugs, fuksch, fuks, fòcks, vucks (“fox”), Bavarian Fuchs, vucs, vuks (“fox”), Central Franconian Fuss (“fox”), Cimbrian buks, vuks (“fox”), Dutch vos (“fox”), German Fuchs (“fox”), Low German Voss (“fox”), Luxembourgish Fuuss (“fox”), Vilamovian füks (“fox”), Yiddish פֿוקס (fuks, “fox”), Norn fúa (“she-fox”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍉 (fauhō, “fox”); also Bulgarian, Russian, and Ukrainian пух (pux, “down, fluff”), Polish puch (“down, fluff; snow”), Sanskrit पुच्छ (púccha, “tail; hind-part”) (whence Bengali পুচ্ছ (puccho, “tail”), Hindi पूँछ (pū̃ch), पूंछ (pūñch, “tail; rear of an object”), Pali puccha (“tail”), Punjabi ਪੂਛ (pūch, “tail”)).
10. Philosophical sense from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin. Military aviation sense from the pre-NATO military spelling alphabet where Fox represented F and was short for 'to fire'. See: Norn 'fúa', Pali '
puccha'.