"rabbit" in seven languages
Meaningrabbit
Spanish
/koˈnexo/
masc.inherited
French
/lapɛ̃/
masc.other source · of obscure origin, related to lapereau 'young rabbit'
Old French had conil from CUNĪCULUM, which gave English coney.
Italian
/koˈniʎʎo/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
/koˈeʎu/
masc.inherited
Two Portuguese laws in one word: intervocalic -N- lost, -CUL- → lh.
Romanian
/ˈjepure/
masc.other source · Latin LEPOREM 'hare'
Iepure is the hare too; a pet rabbit is an iepure de casă.
Catalan
/kuˈniʎ/
masc.inherited
English
/ˈɹæbɪt/
other source · Middle English rabet, probably from Walloon (of Dutch origin)
The older English coney came from CUNĪCULUM.
The Latin ancestor
CUNĪCULUM‘rabbit (said by the Romans to be an Iberian word)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Roman writers already called the rabbit a Spanish animal. French dropped conil — perhaps because it sounded too much like a vulgar word — for the obscure lapin.
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In a sentence
- esMi hija quiere un conejo.
- frMa fille veut un lapin.
- itMia figlia vuole un coniglio.
- ptMinha filha quer um coelho.
- roFiica mea vrea un iepure.
- caLa meva filla vol un conill.
- enMy daughter wants a rabbit.