The land of rabbits
When adding more animals to the Celtic Connections section on Omniglot the other day, I started wondering about the origins of the Celtic words for rabbit – connín (Irish), coinean (Scottish Gaelic), conning (Manx), cwningen (Welsh), conyn (Cornwell), c’honikl (Breton). They appear to be related to each other, and also to the English word coney, which was used for rabbit until the 18th century, while rabbit was used for the young of the coney from about the 14th century.
Rabbit apparently comes from the Walloon robète, which is a diminutive of the Flemish or Middle Dutch robbe.
Coney comes from the Anglo-Norman conis, the plural of conil “long-eared rabbit” (Lepus cunicula) from the Latin cuniculus, which means burrow and comes from the Greek κύνικλος (kýniklos), which is thought to come from an Iberian word for burrow. Related words in other languages include kanin (Danish), konijn (Dutch), bunny (English), Kaninchen (German), coniglio (Italian).
There’s a popular theory that the Roman name for Spain, Hispania, which became España and Spain, comes from the Phoenician name for Iberia i-shepan-im, the land or coast of rabbits. When the Phoenicians first visited Iberia in around 500 BC they saw lots of rabbits there which they named after a similar animal, the hyrax of North Africa.
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
In Occitan, conilh (coniu in Provençal, coniéu in “Mistralian” orthography); conill in Catalan.
Someone at this address:
http://langcafe2.myfreeforum.org/archive/names-for-animals-in-your-language__o_t__t_399.html
gives kinnen in Scots and knyn in Frisian. À propos of Dutch konijn, there’s a favourite children’s character in the Netherlands called Nijntje (I think they translate the name simply as Bunny in English adaptations.) Sort of a long-eared equivalent of the Japanese Hello Kitty. As for bunny, I’ve always understood it to be a taboo avoidance replacement for coney (due to the latter’s similarity to the core term for female genitals), possibly part of the explanation for the prevalence of ‘rabbit’ over the past couple of centuries.
In geography, Coney Island is a well known resort area near New York City. And as far as I’m concerned, Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris, with the swarms of rabbits living between the runways, ought to be renamed Roissy-les-lapins!
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
This is from an older site of mine, Stair an Fhocail:
Níl stair fhada sa Ghaeilge ag an bhfocal seo, agus is dócha go bhfuil sinsearacht mheasctha aige, leath-Ghaelach agus leath-Ghallda. Ar láimh amháin, is féidir “cú” a dhíspeagadh mar “coinín” (= cú beag; cf. “con” sna focail “Conán”, “na gcon”, etc.), agus ar an láimh eile, bhíodh na focail “cunin”, “konyne”, “coning” agus “coni” in úsáid sa Mheán-Bhéarla (agus “coney” nó “cony” i mBéarla an lae inniu, cé nach gnáthfhocal anois é, ó ghlac “rabbit” a áit).
Maidir leis na focail Mheán-Bhéarla, is ón tSean-Fhraincis “conin, connin, conil” a tháinig siad, ón bhfocal Laidine “cuniculus” (= coinín). Is féidir gur tháinig an focal seo ó fhocal Laidine eile, “cunnus”, a chiallaíonn “pit” (“truaill” nó “clúdach” i dtosach), ó *kut-no-, ón bhfréamh Ind-Eorpaise *(s)keu- (clúdaigh, cuir i bhfolach).
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 am
In Lewis Gaelic, we say ‘rabaid’ but everyone would understand ‘coinean’…
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:43 am
Amazingly, I was talking about Spain and rabbits with my friend yesterday :)
But I thought that Phoenician name would be closer somehow to other semitic names for the Rabbit, mainly “Arnab” in Hebrew and Arabic.
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
In Hebrew it is also common to use “shafan” for rabbit. Not as popularly used as “arnab” but still much used.
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
there is also conejo (Spanish) and conelho (Portuguese)
According to Wikipedia, Coney Island near Brooklyn was a place of rabbit hunting and was taken from the Dutch Konijnen Eiland. Now its a resort and amusement park area.
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
À propos of rabbits, I wonder what ” Welsh rabbit” is actually called in Welsh?
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Very interesting ethmology of rabbit. In Portuguese, cunicultura (cuni-cultura) is the name for the creation of rabbits; cunicultor is the farmar who works with rabbits.
2- Tommy, a small correction in what you wrote. In Portuguse, the name for rabbit is coelho and not conelho.
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Ah, coelho! As soon as I saw that I thought of the fairly common Portuguese family name Coelho. Is there a connection?
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Welsh Rarebit is simple – Caws ar Dost Cymreig :P
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Funny that Standard German “Kaninchen” has “Kanickel” as a regional variant, which resembles the Breton “c’honikl”.
December 24th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
“c’honikl” is the mutated form of konikl – isn’t it?
December 24th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
So what about hase as in hasenpfeffer?
December 24th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Where does that come from, I mean? (Must stop clicking too soon.)
December 24th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=hare&searchmode=none
December 24th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
PS, that last link is NOT SPAM… It takes you to an online etymology page for ‘hare’.
December 25th, 2009 at 7:06 am
A young hare is called a leveret (Welsh: leferen)
December 25th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Christofer, about Coelho as family name (surname), one theory says that all Jweish people, during Middle Ages, who arrieved at Iberic Peninsula, were obey to change their family names, for things thight to nature as trees and animals or things, to scape from persecution. They were called New Christians,so Coelho, Machado, Figueira (or Figueiredo which is my family name) and so on probably came from this passage.
December 25th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
In French, hare is (un) lièvre (as in the fable “Le lièvre et la tortue”); in Occitan, (una) lèbre (cf. the song (“Ai vist lo lop, lo rainal, la lèbre dançar”). In Catalan, Occitan’s twin sister language, it’s llebre. All these words, and their Welsh and English cognates, come from a Latin oblique case stem lepor- that corresponds to the nominative lepus.
Going back to the French title of The Tortoise and the Hare, I find it interesting that English and French each arrange the names a different way, but in a way that the title ends up being made up of three iambic feet in each language: da DA da DA da DA.
December 25th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I can’t really remember which order the title is in Welsh – “Yr Ysgyfarnog a’r Crwban” the Hare and the Tortoise or vise versa?
December 25th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
It’s “Y Crwban a’r Ysgyfarnog”.
December 25th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
In Greek we have Κονικλοτροφεία = the farming of rabbits. Very interesting article Simon!
December 25th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Sorry, spelling error.
Κονικλοτροφία = the farming of rabbits
Κονικλοτροφεία = the farms for the rabbits
although both words are pronounced in the same way.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
As we’re discussing hares – ysgyfarnog (or ‘sgwarnog’ in colloquial Welsh) there’s a song by Bob Delyn a’r Ebillion. The singer, Twm Morys is the son of the writer Jan Morris. The song is ‘Tren bach y sgwarnogod’ (the little train of the hares). It’s a fun song which says that hares don’t have to pay to go on the train. Morys has a thing about hares!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-grdYF_HE
As the comment with the video says, it’s a pity the video is so dark.
January 9th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
possibly related to the French word for horn of an animal? la corne.
January 10th, 2010 at 11:14 am
cara – la corne comes from the Latin cornu and is related to the English words horn and cornet.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Rabbits, of course, only came to Ireland with the Normans. Hares were native and giorria apparently derives from gearr-fhia which appears to mean “small (game animal)” but could facetiously be translated literally as “short-deer”.