Reynard

From Old French Renart (Modern renard (“fox”)), influenced by Middle Dutch Reynaerd,^[1] both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *Raginaharduz, from *raginą (“decision, advice, counsel”) + *harduz (“hard, strong”). Compare German Reinhard, Old High German Reginhart (“strong in counsel”).^[2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛnə(ɹ)d/, /ˈɹɛnɑː(ɹ)d/

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Reynard

1. A male given name.
2. A surname originating as a patronymic.
3. (literary, poetic) A name in European folklore for the red fox.
   • 1852 May, “Latitat” [pseudonym], “Anecdotes of Foxes”, in The Sportsman, London: Rogerson & Tuxford, →OCLC, page 347:

     Reynard, in his thieving rambles, one night the summer before last visited the pleasure-gardens in Cornbury Park, and there he found and carried off a hen pheasant while sitting on her nest. The same evening a barn-door hen, with a nide of pheasants also disappeared.

• reynard
• Renard
• Reinhart