Reconstruction:Proto-Algonquian/wa·kwehsa

The term resembles Yurok wɹgɹs (“fox”), but Goddard rejects the idea that the two terms go back to one Algic root, and describes the Yurok word as a regular derivative of the verb stem wrsry- (“be thin”)[1] (compare wrsryehl (“they (pieces of cloth) are thin”).

The term seems to be (*w- + ) *-a·kw- + *-ehsa.

*wa·kwehsa

1. fox

• *a·kw (“bushy-tailed animal (fox)”)

• Plains Algonquian:
  • Cheyenne: vóhkéso (“kit fox”)
• Central Algonquian:
  • Menominee: wa·koh (“fox”)
  • Ojibwe: waagosh / ᐙᑯᔥ (“fox”)
  • Algonquin: wonkis (“fox”)
  • Potawatomi: wekshi (“fox”)
  • Fox: wâkoshêha (“fox”)
• Eastern Algonquian:
  • Mi'kmaq: wokwis (“fox”)
  • Abenaki: ôkwses, wôkwses (“fox”)
  • Penobscot: kwɑ'ŋk'ʷsəs (“fox”)
  • Massachusett: wonksis, wonkqŭssis (“fox”)
  • Mohegan-Pequot: wôks (“fox”)
  • Mahican: waugoosus (“fox”)
  • Unami: òkwës (“fox”)

• *šeka·kwa (“skunk”)
• *ka·kwa (“porcupine”)

• Contributions to Anthropology: Linguistics (1967)
• William Cowan, Papers of the sixth Algonquian Conference, 1974, page 134