What is the origin of the word "bunny" to describe a rabbit?
April 25, 2021 5:58 AM Subscribe
Like it says on the box.
And I always head to World Wide Words, which has a similar story:
Bun was an English dialect word, recorded from the sixteenth century, which was used for a squirrel or rabbit. It seems that the word turned into the endearment bunny in the following century, and only later was it transferred back to the rabbit. There is a suggestion that the word may have originally referred to the small tail of the rabbit, in the same way that a tight coil of hair at the back of the neck was also called a bun, because both were roughly the shape and size of the cake. Others argue that the origin was the Gaelic word bun that meant a stump or root, and which could refer to the tail of a hare. But neither origin explains why it was applied to a squirrel, whose tail looks rather different. But then, we don’t know for sure where the word bun in the sense of the cake comes from either, so it’s all quite obscure.
posted by underclocked at 6:10 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
Bun was an English dialect word, recorded from the sixteenth century, which was used for a squirrel or rabbit. It seems that the word turned into the endearment bunny in the following century, and only later was it transferred back to the rabbit. There is a suggestion that the word may have originally referred to the small tail of the rabbit, in the same way that a tight coil of hair at the back of the neck was also called a bun, because both were roughly the shape and size of the cake. Others argue that the origin was the Gaelic word bun that meant a stump or root, and which could refer to the tail of a hare. But neither origin explains why it was applied to a squirrel, whose tail looks rather different. But then, we don’t know for sure where the word bun in the sense of the cake comes from either, so it’s all quite obscure.
posted by underclocked at 6:10 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
For what it's worth, the Oxford English dictionary connects it back to "bun" with the meanings listed in SaltySalticid's first sentence. It says that the etymology of this sense of "bun" is unknown, and adds that a connection to the "tail of a hare" sense is "unlikely".
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:10 AM on April 25, 2021
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:10 AM on April 25, 2021
There is apparently real linguistic evidence that "coney" used to be pronounced to rhyme with "money" and "honey," and that as this became a homophone with "cunny"-as-in-cutesy-slang-for-"cunt," people looked for ways to avoid the old pronunciation.
Credible sources seem to think this is why "rabbit," originally the word for the babies of the species, became used to refer to the species in general — similar to how "rooster" took over for "cock."
Another way people avoided the old pronunciation was by shifting the pronunciation of "coney" to rhyme with "stoney" and "baloney," like most people in the US and England do.
What I can't find a credible source for is the story that "bunny" is a third way avoiding the old pronunciation of "coney," this time by shifting the first consonant instead of the vowel. I was taught this story in school by a linguist, but I'm discovering to my chagrin that the sites I generally trust on etymology don't say anything about it, and the sites that do talk about it are mostly WHEEEE UNSUBSTANTIATED FUN SCIENCE RUMOR.
Anyway, uh, there's an unsubstantiated fun science rumor for you: at least some non-linguists, and at least one professor of linguistics back in the day, think "bunny" and "rabbit" are two different ways of avoiding the original word for the adults of the species, which had started sounding too much like "cunt" for comfort.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:34 AM on April 25, 2021 [16 favorites]
Credible sources seem to think this is why "rabbit," originally the word for the babies of the species, became used to refer to the species in general — similar to how "rooster" took over for "cock."
Another way people avoided the old pronunciation was by shifting the pronunciation of "coney" to rhyme with "stoney" and "baloney," like most people in the US and England do.
What I can't find a credible source for is the story that "bunny" is a third way avoiding the old pronunciation of "coney," this time by shifting the first consonant instead of the vowel. I was taught this story in school by a linguist, but I'm discovering to my chagrin that the sites I generally trust on etymology don't say anything about it, and the sites that do talk about it are mostly WHEEEE UNSUBSTANTIATED FUN SCIENCE RUMOR.
Anyway, uh, there's an unsubstantiated fun science rumor for you: at least some non-linguists, and at least one professor of linguistics back in the day, think "bunny" and "rabbit" are two different ways of avoiding the original word for the adults of the species, which had started sounding too much like "cunt" for comfort.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:34 AM on April 25, 2021 [16 favorites]
There is somebody explaining on this DuoLingo page as follows:
posted by rongorongo at 6:57 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
'Coney' is by no means slang; it was formerly the ordinary English word for rabbit, and 'rabbit' was the name for the young. It used to be pronounced to rhyme with 'money', by the way.We know that rabbits aren't native to the British isles - and the earliest evidence of them points to their arrival at the time of the Romans who also brought the name. Cuniculus >> Coney >> Bunny.
The Irish, (Scots) Gaelic, and Welsh words for rabbit are borrowed from the Middle English 'cuinen', which in turn comes from Latn cuniculus, rabbit. I wonder if we can conclude from that that rabbits are not native to the Isles?
posted by rongorongo at 6:57 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
Loosely relevant trivia: New York's Coney Island used to be home to a large population of wild rabbits, hence the name.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:27 AM on April 25, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:27 AM on April 25, 2021 [9 favorites]
cuniculus
That looks like a diminutive--was there an older word in Latin? Google Translate seems to indicate that "cunicus" can mean "gutter" and "cuniculus" can also mean "underground passage" or "burrow." Wiktionary draws the connection between the two (I have no idea how accurate this is):
That looks like a diminutive--was there an older word in Latin? Google Translate seems to indicate that "cunicus" can mean "gutter" and "cuniculus" can also mean "underground passage" or "burrow." Wiktionary draws the connection between the two (I have no idea how accurate this is):
From Ancient Greek κόνικλος (kóniklos), probably of Iberian or Celtiberian origin; compare Basque untxi (“rabbit”), Mozarabic conchair (“greyhound”). The original meaning “burrow” adapted to the rabbit or vice versa.posted by pykrete jungle at 7:32 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
Attested beginning from Cicero and Varro.
'Coney' is by no means slang; it was formerly the ordinary English word for rabbit
It's very close to the Dutch word 'konijn', which we still use for 'rabbit' to this very day.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:05 AM on April 25, 2021
It's very close to the Dutch word 'konijn', which we still use for 'rabbit' to this very day.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:05 AM on April 25, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
pet name for a rabbit, 1680s, diminutive of Scottish dialectal bun, pet name for a rabbit, previously (1580s) for a squirrel, and also a term of endearment for a young attractive woman or child (c. 1600). Ultimately it could be from Scottish bun "tail of a hare" (1530s), or from French bon, or from a Scandinavian source.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:07 AM on April 25, 2021 [1 favorite]