different between shrew vs vixen

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: shro?o, IPA^(key): /??u?/
• Rhymes: -u?

Etymology 1

From Middle English *schrewe, from Old English scr?awa (“shrew”, literally “biter”), from Proto-Germanic *skrawwaz (“thin; meagre; frail”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut; shorten; skimp”). Cognates include Old High German scrawaz (“dwarf”), Norwegian skrugg (“dwarf”).

Noun

shrew (plural shrews)

1. Any of numerous small, mouselike, chiefly nocturnal, mammals of the family Soricidae (order Soricomorpha).
2. Certain other small mammals that resemble true shrews (order Soricomorpha).
3. (derogatory) An ill-tempered, nagging woman: a scold.

Synonyms

• (mouselike mammal): ranny (obsolete)
• (nagging woman): See Thesaurus:shrew

Hyponyms

• (mouselike mammal): common shrew

Alternative forms

• shrow (obsolete)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English schrewen (“to make evil; curse”), from Middle English schrewe, schrowe, screwe (“wicked; evil; an evil person”), from Old English *scr?awa (“wicked person”, literally “biter”). Perhaps ultimately from the same word as Etymology 1 above.

Verb

shrew (third-person singular simple present shrews, present participle shrewing, simple past and past participle shrewed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To beshrew; to curse.

   • I shrew myself.

Anagrams

• Rhews, wersh

English

Alternative forms

• fixen, vixon (both obsolete)

Etymology

Alteration of earlier fixen, from Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxen, from Proto-West Germanic *fuhsini; synchronically analyzable as fox +? -en. Voiced v- is from the Southern dialectal forms of Middle English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?k.s?n/
• Rhymes: -?ks?n, -?ks?n

Noun

vixen (plural vixens)

1. A female fox.
2. A malicious, quarrelsome or temperamental woman.
   • 1859:, George Eliot. Adam Bede: page 54. Köln: Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1999:

     […] and if Solomon was as wise as he is reputed to be, I feel sure that when he compared a contentious woman to a continual dripping on a very rainy day, he had not a vixen in his eye–a fury with long nails, acrid and selfish.

3. (colloquial) A racy or salacious woman who is sexually attractive.
4. (colloquial) A wife who has sex with other men with her husband's consent.
   • 2018, ‘Stag’ men love watching other guys have sex with their wives… but it’s not cuckolding

     The stag gets a thrill from watching his vixen have sex with another man.

Synonyms

• (malicious, quarrelsome or temperamental woman): See Thesaurus:shrew
• (racy or salacious woman): See Thesaurus:promiscuous woman or Thesaurus:vamp

Hypernyms

• (female fox): fox

Coordinate terms

• (female fox): dog-fox, reynard, tod; (male fox)

Related terms

• bull
• cuckold
• cuckquean
• stag

Translations

Anagrams

• invex