Fox "kits"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Merriam-Webster has kit, "a young or undersized fur-bearing animal."  OED has it as a short form of kitten, with references to minks (1970) and muskrats (1974).

See, it's ALWAYS worse than you think: Lighter's Law.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Fox "kits"?
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In a newspaper article about the taming of foxes, the author referred
to what I know as fox "cubs" as fox "kits." Fox "kits"?! Why not fox
"pups"? There's a species of vulpine known as a "kit fox." Perhaps the
writer had that in mind.

-Wilson


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