zorro

See also: Zorro

English

Lycalopex culpaeus

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish zorro.

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

false fox
raposa
South American fox

Hyponyms

culpeo

Basque

Noun

zorro

bag

Spanish

Zorro

Etymology

First attested in the 15th century, chiefly in the feminine form zorra. Of unclear origin: perhaps from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia, or perhaps from Basque azari/azeri (“fox”) (a third suggestion, that the term derives from onomatopoeia, is considered "far from convincing" and "unprovable").[1]

Pronunciation

(Castilian) IPA^(key): /ˈθoro/

(Latin America) IPA^(key): /ˈsoro/

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 singular zorra, masculine plural zorros, feminine plural zorras)

clever, crafty, sly

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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[1] 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."