ETYMOLOGY
from Latin vulpecula, dim. of vulpes (fox)
EXAMPLE
“..the Dun Cow went a maskarado last night, and is not as yet returned. Upon the fourth of this month our neighbour Geoffrey’s barn was eclipsed, ab ovo ad mala. And the night before Widdow Wamford was vulpeculated of her brood Goose.—latet anguis in herbâ. The Turkie Cock growes very melancholy…”
From: Mr Hobbs’s State of Nature Considered,
In a Dialogue Between Philautus and Timothy
By John Eachard, 1672
Lexicophilia 