raposa

See raposo. Compare Portuguese raposa, Spanish raposa.

raposa f (plural raposas)

1. vixen (animal)

• raposo

Borrowed from Spanish raposa (“fox”), probably from rabo (“tail”), from Latin rāpum (“turnip”) + -ōsus, and influenced by descendants of rapiō (“snatch, grab”).

• Hyphenation: ra‧po‧sa

raposa f (plural raposas)

1. fox (both the "true foxes" of the Old World and North America, and the "false foxes" of Latin America)
   • 2015, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, O Pequeno Príncipe, Pelekanos Books, →ISBN:

     – Os homens, disse a raposa, têm fuzis e caçam. É bem incômodo!

     “The men”, said the fox, “have rifles and they hunt. It’s quite bothersome!”

2. (specifically) vixen (female fox)
3. (Brazil, regional) oposum (any American marsupial of the family Didelphidae)
4. (usually derogatory) fox (a sly or cunning person)

Raposa is one of the few feminines that are used by default (when the referent’s sex is unknown or irrelevant).

• (fox): golpelha
• (opossum): gambá

• raposo
• casamento de raposa

• “raposa” in Dicionário Online de Português.
• “raposa” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024.

See raposo.

• IPA^(key): /raˈposa/ [raˈpo.sa]
• Rhymes: -osa
• Syllabification: ra‧po‧sa

raposa f (plural raposas)

1. female equivalent of raposo; vixen

   Synonyms: zorra, vulpeja

• “raposo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014