Hello hello, linguistic lovelies! We are here for another installment of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Today we’re talking about a very specific kind of animal, and you might think I’m mistaken, but I am in fact talking about - the zorro!

Zorro, the masked hero created by Johnston McCulley in 1919 and famously portrayed by Antonio Banderas in ‘The Mask of Zorro’ series? No! The Spanish name for the South American fox? Yes! Zorro is an incredibly cute South American fox, which despite their name are not true foxes, but are a unique canid genus more closely related to wolves and jackals. The South American gray fox, Lycalopex griseus, is the most common species, and is known for its large ears. There are currently seven kinds of species that exist within the zorro genus.

Zorro is first attested in the 15th century, but chiefly in the feminine form ‘zorra’. The word has an unclear origin - perhaps from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia, or maybe from the Basque word ‘azari’, also meaning fox. The plural is zorros, and synonyms include false fox, or the Portugese ‘raposa’. The oldest known fossils relating to the genus zorro were discovered in Chile, and date from 2 to 2.5 million years ago. Today they are often, and rather sadly, hunted in Argentina for their soft, durable pelt. 

In Spanish, zorro can also refer to a sly or cunning person, just as we might refer to someone as a ‘sneaky fox’ in English. It can also be used in Spanish as an adjective on its own, meaning clever, crafty or sly where the feminine form is once again ‘zorra’. 

I will now return us briefly to hero Zorro - which is the likely the first hit you’ll discover when searching zorro on Google. Our hero Zorro, first seen in ‘The Curse of Capistrano’ in 1919 by Johnston McCulley became a quick hit after starring in the 1920 film ‘The Mark of Zorro’. He is known as the masked and caped vigilante who would later be played by several noteworthy Hollywood actors, and, of course, many masked Halloween goers. I wonder how many of them know they are portraying the personification of the fox?

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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