Why do we call rabbits "bunnies"?

Question

Where does the word bunny come from?

Answer 1

Bunny:

1. A lump or swelling.

2. A term of endearment for rabbits and, sometimes, for girls and women.

The plural of this word is bunnies. There is a rare diminutive, bunnikin which, centuries ago, was used as the name of an early spring flower. The Easter Bunny is a holdover from an ancient Anglo-Saxon celebration of the goddess of spring and fertility, Eastre, from which we also derive Easter. The impressive birthrate of bunnies made it the perfect symbol for the goddess of fertility. The egg is also an obvious symbol of rebirth and fertility. So Easter egg hunts are remnants of our pagan ancestry and are only recently related to the story of the Resurrection.

Word History: This good word for kids should mean "a small bun", and guess what—it does! The origin of this word is a Celtic bun "stump, bottom" which was extended to the tail of a bunny, then to their entire rear ends (at which point squirrel's bottoms were included) and, finally, to the entire rabbit. In the meantime, it was borrowed by French, who returned it as bugne "boil, swelling", which gave us "bun" in the culinary sense (and bunion). The use of "buns" to refer to human bottoms, amazingly enough, comes from this sense and not from the more obvious bunny bottoms.