ox
pronunciation
How to pronounce ox in British English:
UK [ɒks]
How to pronounce ox in American English:
US [ɑːks]
-
- Noun:
- an adult castrated bull of the genus Bos; especially Bos taurus
- any of various wild bovines especially of the genera Bos or closely related Bibos
Word Origin
- ox
- ox: [OE] Ox is an ancient word, traceable back to a prehistoric Indo-European *uksín-. This also produced Welsh ych ‘bull’, Irish oss ‘stag’, and Sanskrit ukshán ‘bull’, and it has been speculated that there may be some connection with Sanskrit uks- ‘emit semen’ and Greek hugrós ‘moist’, as if *uksín- denoted etymologically ‘male animal’.If this was so, the ‘seed-bearing’ function had clearly been lost sight of by the time it had evolved to Germanic *okhson, which was reserved for a ‘castrated bull’. Ox’s modern Germanic relatives are German ochse (taken over by English in the compound aurochs ‘extinct wild ox’ [18], which etymologically means ‘original or primeval ox’), Dutch os, Swedish oxe, and Danish okse.=> aurochs
- ox (n.)
- Old English oxa "ox" (plural oxan), from Proto-Germanic *ukhson (cognates: Old Norse oxi, Old Frisian oxa, Middle Dutch osse, Old Saxon, Old High German ohso, German Ochse, Gothic auhsa), from PIE *uks-en- "male animal," (cognates: Welsh ych "ox," Middle Irish oss "stag," Sanskrit uksa, Avestan uxshan- "ox, bull"), said to be from root *uks- "to sprinkle," related to *ugw- "wet, moist." The animal word, then, is literally "besprinkler."
Antonym
Example
- 1. This is the year of the ox in asia .
- 2. E.g can you tell an ox from a cow ?
- 3. And after the ox is communism .
- 4. If you see your brother 's donkey or his ox fallen on the road , do not ignore it .
- 5. The head of the ox was designed with a complex system of tubes and stops so that the prisoner 's screams were converted into sounds like the bellowing of an infuriated bull .