[MR. ARTHUR WILSON has written to us that this word is Swedish, and to
be found in Widegren's _Swedish and English Dictionary_. We may add
that it is also in Delens, but we do not believe it to be of Swedish
origin. We believe it will eventually be traced to a French
source.--ED.]
* * * * *
"CONINGER" OR "CONINGRY."
(Vol. vii., p. 182.)
The Latin word for a rabbit is _cuniculus_, as is shown in the following
couplet of Martial:
"Gaudet in effossis habitare cuniculus antris:
Monstravit tacitas hostibus ille vias."--xiii. 60.
The rabbit appears to have been originally peculiar to Spain, Southern
France, and the adjoining islands. Strabo (iii. 2. § 6.) says that it is
found nearly over the whole of Spain, and in the Balearic islands; and that
it reaches as far as Massilia. Polybius (xii. 3.) likewise states it to be
a native of Corsica. It was unknown to the Greeks, and is not mentioned by
Aristotle in his works on natural history (see Camus, _Notes sur l'Histoire
des Animaux d'Aristote_, p. 278.); nor does it ever occur in the Æsopian
fables, although the hare is frequently introduced. Hence it had no native
Greek name; and Polybius borrows the Latin word, calling it [Greek:
kuniklos] (compare _Athen._, ix. p. 400.). Strabo uses the periphrasis of
"burrowing hares," [Greek: geôruchoi lagideis]. Ælian, again, employs the
Latin name, which he considers to be of Iberian origin (_De Nat. Anim._,
xiii. 15.). If this be true, the sense of _subterranean passage_, which
_cuniculus_ also bears, is secondary, and not primary (compare Plin. _Nat.
Hist._, viii. 81.).
The language of Varro _de Re Rust._ (iii. 12.) likewise shows that the
rabbit was in his time peculiar to Spain, and had not been introduced into
Italy. The meaning of the Hebrew word _Saphan_, which is translated _cony_
in the authorised version of the Old Testament (Lev. xi. 5.; Deut. xiv. 7.;
Ps. civ. 18.; Prov. xxx. 26.), has been fully investigated by biblical
critics and naturalists. (See Bochart's _Hierozoicon_, vol. ii. pp.
409-429., ed. Rosenmüller; Winer, _Bibl. Real-Wörterbuch_, in SPRINGHASE;
_Penny Cyclopædia_, in HYRAX.) It is certainly _not_ the rabbit, which is
not a native of Syria and Palestine: but whether this ruminant quadruped,
which lives in the rocks, is the jerboa, or a species of hyrax, or some
other small edible animal of a like description, is difficult to determine.
From the manner in which Strabo speaks of Spain and the Balearic islands
being infested by large numbers of rabbits, it would appear (as Legrand
d'Aussy remarks, _Vie privée des Français_, tom. ii. p. 24.) that the
ancients did not eat its flesh. The rabbit is now so abundant in parts of
the south of France, that, according to the same author, a sportsman in the
islands near Arles who did not kill a hundred, would be dissatisfied with
his day's sport. A Provençal gentleman, who in 1551 went out to kill
rabbits with some of his vassals, and three dogs, brought home in the
evening not less than six hundred.
From the Latin _cuniculus_ have been formed, according to the proper
analogy, the Italian _coniglio_, the Spanish _conéjo_, and the French
_conil_, sometimes modified into _conin_ (see Diez, _Roman. Gramm._, vol.
ii. p. 264.). From the old French _conin_ was borrowed the English _coning_
or _conig_, afterwards shortened into _cony_: and from this word have been
formed _conigar_ and _coningry_ or _conigry_, for rabbit-warren (see
Halliwell's _Dict._, in CONIG). _Conillus_, for a rabbit-warren, occurs in
Ducange; _conejár_ is the Spanish term.
The Germans, like the English, had no native name for the rabbit; an animal
not indigenous in their country. Hence they borrowed the French name
_conin_, which they altered into _kanin_; and have since formed the
diminutive _kaninchen_. In Suabian, the form used is _küniglein_. See
Adelung in v. The Dutch word is _konÿn_.
The rabbit was probably introduced into England from France. Query: When
did that introduction take place? Also, when did the later term "rabbit"
supersede the old name _cony_? and what is the etymology of _rabbit_? The
French _lapin_, which has supplanted the old word _conin_, is said to be
formed from _lepinus_, an adjective of _lepus_.