2020-12-15
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด R – Rabbit & rarebit
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง Rabbit = ‘RAB-it’
ออกเสียง rarebit = ‘RAIR-bit’
ออกเสียง Hare = ‘HAIR’
Rarebit = rabbit in Welsh
Farlex Trivia Dictionary
hare, rabbit, jackrabbit =
Hares live in the open and bear young that have fur at birth,
while rabbits live in burrowsand bear young that are naked at birth; jackrabbitsare hares, not rabbits.
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
hare
rodent-like mammal having long ears;
a rabbit: The race was like the tortoise and the hare.
Not to be confused with:
hair – filament that grows from the skin:
Her hair was long and shiny.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
hare
Did You Know?
Verb
No doubt you've heard Aesop's fable
about the speedy hare and the plodding tortoise.
The hare may have lost that race due to a tactical error
(stopping to take a nap before reaching the finish line),
but the long-eared mammal's overall reputation for swiftnessremains intact.
It's no surprise, then, that hare is used
as a verb meaning "to move quickly."
The noun hare (which refers, in its most specific zoological sense,
to a member of the genus Lepus, whose young are usually able to hop a few minutes after birth) is a very old word.
It first appeared as hara in a Latin-Old English glossary around the year 700. The verb was in use by the end of the 19th century, and people have been "haring off" and "haring about" ever since.
Dictionary.com
BEHIND THE WORD
Where does rabbit come from?
There’s just something about the names of some of the most familiar animals.
Like dog, the origin of the word rabbit is obscure.
But, at least we are few hops closer to a source with rabbit than we are with dog.
Found in Middle English,
rabbit originally meant “young rabbit, bunny,”
and was most likely borrowed from a French word.
Scholars point us to the Walloon robett and the dialectical Dutch robbe. But from there, it’s an etymological rabbit hole.
Walloon is a French dialect chiefly spoken in southern and southeastern Belgium and neighboring regions in France.
Unsure about the difference between a rabbit and a hare?
Did you know … ?
Because they have so many natural predators,
rabbits are famously skittish animals.
They can rotate their ears 180 degrees and can pinpoint sounds.
Rabbits even use their own “language”of subtle facial twitches and other movements to warn their kin.
The word bunny is often used as an informal synonym of rabbit,
as in Bugs Bunny is a rascally rabbit—er, wascally wabbit?
The word hare is also commonly used to mean a rabbit,
but the two words have different origins,
not to mention the fact that they are separate species.
Rabbit is used in a number ofidioms and phrases
that reference the critter in some way,
such as rabbit ears (indoor television antennae, if you remember those)
or the expression to breed like rabbits,
which alludes to the animal’s proficiency in … making more rabbits.
Dictionary.com
Why Do People Say “Rabbit Rabbit” And “Hare Hare”?
Ever heard someone say “rabbit rabbit,”
but there’s not a floppy-eared bunny to be found for miles?
There’s a reason they’re saying it
… and that reason may even convince you to start saying it too,
if you haven’t already.
Keep reading to find out why this saying may be your next morning mantra.
Why do people say rabbit rabbit?
Though it sounds a bit like gibberish,
the phrase rabbit rabbit is a long-held superstition
thought to bring about good luck.
But it’s not to be uttered just any old random day.
Rather, if you say it on the first day of the month before any other words come out of your mouth, then luck is thought to be coaxed your way.
If you get your rabbits in, luck is yours for 30 days … or so goes the folklore.
There are a few twists on this tradition.
Some people say rabbit three times,
while others say the phrase white rabbits.
Others put their own twist on it, like beloved comedian Gilda Radner,
who reportedly used to say bunny, bunny
on the first of each month to attract “laughter, love, and peace.”
What if you forget to rabbit?
(Yes, we’re going to go ahead and use rabbit as a verb here.)
Are you just out of luck?
Nope, according to some,
if you say “rabbit rabbit” backwards, you’re safe.
So, if you ask for coffee before you remember rabbits,
then tibbar, tibbar it is.
Where did rabbit rabbit come from?
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, the phrase goes back to at least 1909, when a British periodical featured
a girl who said “Rabbits!” on the first day of each month for good luck.
President Roosevelt also reportedly rabbited every month without fail.
In 1935, The Nottingham Evening Post wrote:
“Even Mr. Roosevelt, the President of the United States, has confessed to a friend that he says ‘Rabbits’ on the first of every month—and, what is more, he would not think of omitting the utterance on any account.”
So, why do rabbits get all the glory and luck?
Why not moose moose or dolphin dolphin?
There’s no concrete answer here,
but it may stem from the fact that back in b.c. days,
the Celts thought rabbits could communicate withspirits
since they burrow underground.
Also, a rabbit’s foot, especially the back-left one,
has long been thought to be a good luck charm.
In African-American folk spirituality,
it was thought that rabbits’ feet would increase fertility
since rabbits themselves are so fertile.
But there were some rather eerie stipulations about those feet:
the rabbit must be captured or killed in a cemetery,
and the foot must be cut off on a certain day of the week under specific circumstances.
Poor unlucky bunnies!
What about hare, hare?
Some people believe you also must say hare or hare hare
before you fall asleep on the last day of the month to bring about the luck. Why not rabbit again—is that just splitting hairs?
Though sometimes used interchangeably,
rabbits and hares aren’t the same animals.
While they’re closely related,
rabbits are generally smaller and have shorter ears.
Both belong to the family Leporidae,
but hares make nests in the grass
while rabbits make burrows.
For insight into the word rabbit,
we don’t have to look any further than New York’s Coney Island
(aka Rabbit Island).
You see, coney was what people called rabbits until about the 1700s.
The word comes from the French word for rabbit, coniz (plural conil),
which came from the Latin word cuniculus.
Originally rabbit was only used to refer to a young coney,
but over time it became the more popular term for all coneys.
As for the word hare,
it isn’t related to the hair on your head as you might suspect.
The word hare is a very old onein the English language.
Developing from the Old English hara, hare is recorded before 900.
The deeper roots of hare are Germanic in origin; compare the Danish word hare. Hare is related to the Dutch haas and German Hase.
The Old English hasu meaning “gray,” may be connected to hare.
So, while the phrase hare, hare may seem an obvious substitute, substitute it at your own risk.
Is there any proof that saying “rabbit rabbit” \
will bring you 30 days of good luck?
No, but like eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day or crossing your fingers, it also can’t hurt.
So, write yourself a note, set a reminder, or do whatever you need to do to remember your rabbits … or don’t. The risk is yours!
Dictionary.com
What’s The Difference Between A Bunny, A Rabbit, And A Hare?
Let’s start with the two that have scientific names.
Hares and rabbits are both in the family Leporidae,
but they’re separate species.
Both animals have long ears, powerful backlegs,
and a divided upper lip.
But, hares are larger than rabbits.
And, instead of creating burrows, hares make nestsin the grass.
The exposed nesting sites of hares
hint at another big difference—when they’re born.
Hares are precocial,born with their eyes open and fur grown in,
which means they don’t require a lot of parental care.
Rabbits, on the other hand, are born naked, blind, and helpless,
which is why it’s smart for them to live in more secure dens underground.
Where did the word rabbit come from?
Until the 18th century,
rabbits were called coneys,
based on the French conil, shortened from the Latin cuniculus.
Rabbit first referred to the youngof coneys
until eventually the word took over in popularity.
Incidentally, that’s also the origin of the name Coney Island
(or Rabbit Island), the beachside amusement park in New York.
It is one of the only references to coney that’s still used in North America.
Where did the word hare come from?
The word hare is a very old one in the English language.
Developing from the Old English hara, hare is recorded before 900.
The deeper roots of hare are Germanic in origin; compare the Danish word hare. Hare is related to the Dutch haas and German Hase.
The Old English hasu meaning “gray,” may be connected to hare.
Where did the word bunny come from?
So, what about bunnies, and specifically the Easter bunny?
Bunny was originally (and sometimes still is)
used as a term of endearment for a young girl.
Over time, it started to mean a young and/or small animal,
and now it usually means a rabbit.
But, when German immigrants
brought the traditions of (Kriss Kringle and) the Easter hare.
The night before Easter, children would find a quiet corner in their house and make a nest out of clothing for the Easter hare to come lay eggs (the origin of the Easter basket).
The word hare was dropped on its way across the Atlantic
and the fuzzier, cuddlier word bunny was applied in its place.
Why a hare and not, you know, a chicken to lay those Easter eggs?
The intensely short gestation period and
well-known reproductive speed of haresand rabbits
have a long cultural association with spring and fertility.
Hares are usually shy and isolatedcreatures,
but their spring mating ritual makes them most conspicuous
to humans in March and April.
The phrase “mad as a March hare”
hints at that mating season,
when hares can be seen boxing each other as part of their unruly courtship ritual.
Eggs are also a fertility symbol, and during the Lent fast,
Catholics were traditionally not allowed to eat eggs,
so they became part of the Easter feast.
There’s a lot happening in those relationships,
but it seems that the bunny-egg entanglement is here to stay.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
What's the difference between a rabbitand a hare?
Are they different animals, or just different words?
Hare is the oldest name for these furry animals
—it’s a word as old as English itself.
Though hare is sometimes used interchangeably with rabbit,
there are differences that involve both biologyand terminology.
A 'jackrabbit' is really a hare, but a 'swamp hare' is really a rabbit.
Hare derives ultimately from the Old English word for “gray.”
Rabbit entered the language from French in the 14th century.
Though originally classified as rodents,
both are now part of the order called lagomorphsplay
(from the Greek words meaning “hare” and “form”),
which differ from rodents by having two rows of upper incisors
and by being herbivorous.
Hares are distinguished from rabbits
by their larger size, longer ears, and longer hind legs.
They also tend to live alone or in pairsin above-ground nests,
whereas rabbits often live together in groups of up to 20
in underground tunnels known as warrens.
Another important difference between haresand rabbits
is the way their young are born:
hares are born covered in fur and with open eyes,
but rabbits are born furless, blind, and helpless.
The fact that they can be difficultto tell apart
is also reflected in particular names:
a jackrabbit is really a hare,
but a swamp hare is really a rabbit.
Coney is sometimes used to refer to an adult rabbit,
and the terms buck, doe, and kitten or kit
(for male, female, and young rabbits, respectively),
though correct, are much more closely associated with other mammals.
The modern French word for “rabbit,” lapin,
refers to a castrated male rabbit inEnglish.
Bunny (meaning simply “rabbit” or “a small rabbit”)
comes from bun, a regional word used for both“rabbit” or “squirrel”
in England going back to at least the 1500s.
Easter Bunny comes from Easter Hare,
a translation from the German of the term as well as the tradition
—dating back at least as far as the late 1600s
—in which a bunny brings eggs and gifts to children at Easter.
Rabbits and eggs were both symbols of fertility and springtime
that connected the religious and the secularat Easter.
As for those eggs: they were forbidden during Lent.
That’s why people boiled them and waited until Easter to eat them.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
rabbit noun :
any of various lagomorphs that are born furless, blind, and helpless,
that are sometimes gregarious,
and that include especially thecottontails of the New World
and a small Old World mammal (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
that is the source of various domestic breeds
We're giving an explanation of three words
used in this definition of rabbit
because, frankly, the etymological tale of rabbit
needs a thorough combing (it's tangled).
The modern name evolves from Middle English rabette and rabet,
but after that there are too many assumptions about its conception
and development to make for a rabbity, quick read.
The word lagomorph in the definition ultimately derives from Greek lagṓs, meaning"hare," and morphē, "form,"
and refers to any of an order (Lagomorpha) of gnawing herbivorous mammals having two pairs of incisors in the upper jaw, one behind the other, and comprisingrabbits, hares, and pikas.
(In biology, an order is a category of taxonomic classification ranking above family and below class.)
Oryctolagus refers to a genus comprising the common European rabbits. The originator of the genus name had in mind Greek orýktēs ("digger") and lagṓs ("hare"), which doesn't quite work as a proper compound following Greco-Latin word formation rules—because the verbal adjective/participle oryktós means "formed by digging," not "digger."
But overall the term has been working for quite some time, so why fix it?
Cuniculus is the Latin word for a rabbit
or for a subterranean passage oran animal's burrow.
Cuniculus is also the source of English coney.
Coney isn't typically used to refer to a timid or ineffectual person or group but rabbit is
(by association with the behavior traits of the wide-eyed critter).
This isn't another surprise Marlins World Series run in progress.
The 1997 Marlins had Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Gary Sheffield and a $50 million payroll. The 2003 team had Josh Beckett, Derrek Lee, Pudge Rodriguez and a $49 million payroll.
These Marlins are a rabbit—destined to fade badly in the second half of the race as the better all-around horses take control.
A look at their underlying statistical numbers reveals the kind of weaknesses that portend a steep fall. — Dan Graziano, The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), 26 May 2008
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
Rabbit & rarebit
The correct term for a certain kind of cheese dish
is Welsh rabbit,
but rarebit has been so widely substituted
that both Welsh rabbit and Welsh rarebit are now acceptable
in one’s diction, although perhaps not always in one’s stomach.
As two words, rare and bit are standard:
“That was a rare bit of acting.”
Rabbit appears in several overworked expressions:
“rabbit punch” (an example of boxing shop talk);
“rabbit ears” (“sensitivity to jibes or insults,” “television antenna”);
“rabbit’s foot” (a good luck charm).
