zorro
English
Etymology
Noun
zorro (plural zorros)
- A South American canid of the genus Lycalopex, visually similar to (and sometimes referred to as) a fox but more closely related to a wolf.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
Basque
Noun
zorro
Galician
Etymology
Unknown. Attested since the 13th century.[1] Cognate with Spanish zorro.
Pronunciation
Adjective
zorro (feminine zorra, masculine plural zorros, feminine plural zorras)
Noun
zorro m (plural zorros)
References
- Template:R:DDGM
- Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “zorro”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
- Template:R:DDLG
- Template:R:TILG
- Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “zorro”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN
Spanish
Etymology
First attested in the 15th century, chiefly in the feminine form zorra. Of unclear origin: perhaps from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "qfa-sub-ibe" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E., or perhaps from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Basque azari/azeri (“fox”) (a third suggestion, that the term derives from onomatopoeia, is considered "far from convincing" and "unprovable").[1]
Pronunciation
Noun
zorro m (plural zorros)
- fox (carnivore)
- (by extension, figuratively) fox (sly or cunning person)
- (Argentina) jack (device used to raise and temporarily support a heavy object)
- (by extension, figuratively) beacon
Related terms
Adjective
zorro (feminine zorra, masculine plural zorros, feminine plural zorras)
References
- ^ 2012, A History of the Spanish Lexicon: A Linguistic Perspective →ISBN, page 39: "The initial attestations of Sp. zorro/zorra 'fox' are from the mid fifteenth century and appear almost exclusively in the feminine, employed in cancionero poetry, with reference to idle, immoral women (cf. mod. zorra 'prostitute'). […] DCECH may well be right in stating that zorro/zorra secondarily became a euphemistic designation for the dreaded fox (cf. raposo so used). […] The late initial documentation of zorro leads to the question [of] whether this word goes back to early Roman Spain or whether it is a later borrowing from Basque, a derivation, as noted above, challenged by Trask (1997: 421). Far from convincing is the unprovable hypothesis in DCECH that zorro goes back to a verb zorrar (whose authenticity I have been unable to verify), allegedly of onomatopoeic origin."
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- es:Mammals