What we now somewhat generically call a rabbit, was at one time called a cony (also coney) — from the Latin cuniculus, a word of possible Hispanic origin, meaning perhaps “little doggie”. Iberia is the place from which the European rabbit is thought to have emerged. The word rabbit comes from French dialect, diminutive of robbe, meaning strictly “young of the cony”.

After British slang transmogrified cony, the word’s pronunciation was softened (to rhyme with pony) but that didn’t seem to help. So, eventually, rabbit took over.

The hare (Germanic: hase, pronounced hah-seh; Sanskrit: śaśa, meaning “leaper”) is a different creature, both technically and linguistically. The hare in the moon might be one answer to the question of ‘sup?

The picture is my daughter’s father’s-day-card drawing. She’s had a thing for collecting “rabbits” and her drawings thereof are widely dispersed: at the end of our street, in a book, and as a more formal painting.