The name Fauvel points to the French fauve ('chestnut, reddish-yellow, or fawn'), another sense of fauve meaning the class of wild animals whose coats are at least partly brown, and the medieval belief that a fallow horse was a symbol of deceit and dishonesty.
An oxidizing agent is a reactant that removes electrons from other reactants during a redox reaction. The oxidizing agent typically takes these electrons for itself, thus gaining electrons and being reduced. An oxidizing agent is thus an electron acceptor.
A reducing agent is oxidized because it loses electrons in the redox reaction. Examples of reducing agents include the earth metals, formic acid, and sulfite compounds. Definitions ï· A reducing agent reduces other substances and lose electrons; therefore, its oxidation state will increase.