English

Proper noun

Film poster of The Mark of Zorro.

Zorro

1. Fictional character created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley.

Translations

Noun

Zorro

1. A daring and mysterious avenger (after the fictional character created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley).
   • 1999, Kate Calloway, 6th sense: a Cassidy James mystery

     I told her about the Z found etched in Hector Peña's blood and my theory that the killer may indeed picture himself or herself as some kind of avenger, a modern-day Zorro with a twist.

   • 2000, T Coraghessan Boyle, A friend of the earth

     ...he made himself visible at certain crucial and dramatic moments, like a kind of Zorro of the ecodefense movement.

   • 2006, Bob Onan, Taming Storm Surges: When Ecology, Engineering And Faith Meet

     You are a real Zorro. You ride in, rescue the fair damsel (Maartje), start massive fires and vanish — until the next perceived injustice.

English

Noun

zorro ‎(plural zorros)

1. A South American canid of the genus Lycalopex, visually similar to (and sometimes referred to as) a fox but more closely related to a wolf.

Synonyms

• false fox
• raposa
• South American fox

Hyponyms

• culpeo

Basque

Noun

zorro

1. bag

Spanish

Etymology

First attested in the 15th century, chiefly in the feminine form zorra. Of unclear origin: perhaps from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia, or perhaps from Basque azari/azeri ‎(“fox”) (a third suggestion, that the term derives from onomatopoeia, is considered "far from convincing" and "unprovable").^[1]

Pronunciation

• (z-s distinction) IPA^(key): /ˈθo.ro/
• (seseo merger) IPA^(key): /ˈso.ro/

Noun

zorro m ‎(plural zorros)

1. fox (carnivore)
2. (by extension, figuratively) fox (sly or cunning person)
3. (Argentina) jack (device used to raise and temporarily support a heavy object)
4. (by extension, figuratively) beacon

Related terms

• zorra
• zorrillo
• zorrear

Adjective

zorro m ‎(feminine singular zorra, masculine plural zorros, feminine plural zorras)

1. clever, crafty, sly

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 of onomatopoeic origin."