overwordExplorer
FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fauve.

tawny

5 characters2 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

adj/fov/

  1. tawny

  2. savage, fierce (having the ferocity of a wild animal)

    archaic · rare

  3. dangerous, wild

    broadly · rare

  4. fauvist

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French fauve, from Old French falve, from Late Latin falvus, a borrowing from Frankish *falu, *falw- (compare Dutch vaal, English fallow and German falb), from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (“pale, grey”). The adjectival sense of "savage, fierce" comes from the noun sense "wild animal," which is in turn a shortening of bête au pelage fauve (“animal with tawny fur”).

noun/fov/

  1. tawny-coloured animal

    dated · masculine

  2. a big cat, such as a lion or lynx

    broadly · masculine

  3. beast, wild animal, especially fierce, aggressive, or predatory. Usually implies adding big bears like the Black, Brown and Polar ones. Sometimes extends up to the wolverine, wolf, etc. More rarely, big, aggressive and/or hard to meet cervid game might go under this umbrella term as well.

    broadly · masculine

  4. a violent or aggressive man or woman

    figuratively · masculine

  5. a brownish orange color, tawny

    masculine

  6. examiner

    masculine · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French fauve, from Old French falve, from Late Latin falvus, a borrowing from Frankish *falu, *falw- (compare Dutch vaal, English fallow and German falb), from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (“pale, grey”). The adjectival sense of "savage, fierce" comes from the noun sense "wild animal," which is in turn a shortening of bête au pelage fauve (“animal with tawny fur”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.