Sionnach
/ˈʃɪn̪ˠəx/noun
The Irish word for a fox.
Did you know?Sionnach descends from Old Irish sinnach and survives in Scottish Gaelic and Manx, making it a linguistic fossil of the medieval Celtic world.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic
*sindākos
“Reconstructed Celtic word for “fox”; its deeper Indo-European origin is uncertain.”
Old Irish
Old Irish
sinnach
“Fox.”
Middle Irish
Middle Irish
sionnach
“Fox; the vowel pattern developed toward the modern Irish form.”
Medieval Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic
sionnach
“Fox, preserving the inherited Celtic term.”
Modern Irish
Irish
sionnach
“Fox.”
Modern Manx
Manx
shennag
“Fox, a related survival of the same Celtic word.”