Fox.

An Old English broadsword.

⁂ A correspondent of Notes and Queries (May 2nd, 1891, p. 356) says: “The swords were manufactured by Julian del Rei of Tolēdo, whose trade-mark was a little dog, mistaken for a fox.” The usual derivation is the Latin falx, French fauchon, our falchion.

“O signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,

Except, O signieur, thou do give to me

Egregious ransom.”

Shakespeare: Henry V., iv. 4.

“I had a sword, ay, the flower of Smithfield for a sword, a right fox 1ʹ faith.”—Two Angry Women of Abington (1599).

· ·

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.