Galician

Noun

zorra f ‎(plural zorras)

1. sleigh
2. sled

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈzo.ʁɐ/
• Hyphenation: zor‧ra

Etymology 1

Back-formation from zorrar.

Noun

zorra f (plural zorras)

1. sledge, dray

Etymology 2

Unknown. Compare Spanish zorra.

Noun

zorra f (plural zorras)

1. an old fox
2. a plodder
3. (colloquial, Brazil) a mess
4. (colloquial, derogatory, regional) a prostitute

Spanish

Etymology

First attested in the 15th century. Of unclear origin: perhaps from an unknown pre-Roman language, or perhaps from Basque azari/azeri ‎(“fox”) (a third suggestion, which holds that the term derives from onomatopoeia, is considered "far from convincing" and "unprovable").^[1]

Noun

zorra f ‎(plural zorras)

1. vixen; female fox
2. (colloquial) prostitute
3. (colloquial) an attractive woman
4. (colloquial) a cunning woman

See also

• zorro

References

1. ↑ 2012, A History of the Spanish Lexicon: A Linguistic Perspective (ISBN 0199541140), 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 on onomatopoeic origin."