Vixen
From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
- This page is about the animal. For the artist, see Vixen (artist).
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[edit] Etymology
The word is related to fox, although in a roundabout way. It comes from the Old English fyxen, the feminine form of fox, formed by the addition of the feminine suffix -en. However all other words formed by this suffix have since been lost, so the word vixen represents the sole word containing the Old English feminine suffix that survives in the modern language (one notable one was wylfen, meaning a female wolf). This distinction has a cognate in other Germanic languages where the feminine suffix is still productive. For example in German the general Fuchs is Füchsin in the feminine, formed by the addition of the feminine suffix -in. The change from f to v is a result of the West Country dialect accent that voiced initial f sounds in a few words (vixen, vane, vat) to v.
[edit] Stereotypes
A furry equivalent of the "dumb blonde" stereotype applies to vixen characters, leading to practices like the telling of vixen jokes. This is directly contradicted by the "cunning fox" stereotype however, so vixens can be clichéd as either ditzy or devious. (For an example of the former, see Sheila Vixen ; for the latter, see Räven.)
Being a notorious sexy female label in human porn and erotica, "vixen" is sometimes used to refer generically to sexy female furry characters in contexts such as cheesecake art. They're also the obvious candidate species for creations such as the infamous Vixen Vending Machine from FurryMUCK. Another common stereotype for a vixen, based on this label is that they are in heat far more often than other species would be or even non stop.
[edit] Voop
 | It has been suggested that this item be merged with Fox. (Discuss) |
Voop is the less often used variant of the term vixen (a female fox). The term is also a spoof on the word vulpine (fox-like).[citation needed] There's a still less used plural version of the term, voopies. The Voops (Melonie Voop and Edith Voop) are fox characters on the Funday PawPet Show. Richard Hallock's Virtual Vikki was known as the original "Digi-Voop".[citation needed]
