# All Slavic languages: hare and rabbit distinction



## dihydrogen monoxide

Does your Slavic language distinguish between rabbit and hare? I know Slovene and Croatian do?

Slovene
a) zajec 'rabbit' b) kunec 'hare'

Croatian
a) zec 'rabbit   b) kunić 'hare'


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## slavian1

Polish 
1) królik 'rabbit' 2) zaj¹c 'hare'


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## kusurija

In Latin:
rabbit = *Oryctolagus cuniculus*
hare = *Lepus europaeus*

In Czech:
*Oryctolagus cuniculus *= králík (domácí)
*Lepus europaeus *= zajíc (polní)

P.S. Are You sure that You didn't interchange in Slovene and/or Croatian those 2 meanings?


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## echo chamber

There is only the word "зајак" [zajak] in Macedonian. No distinction between rabbit and hare, as far as I'm concerned. However, I believe that "rabbit" is referred to as "домашен (domestic) зајак" , while hare as "див (wild) зајак".


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## BezierCurve

> Polish
> 1) królik 'rabbit' 2) zając 'hare'


 
(just fixed the encoding of "ą")


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

kusurija said:


> P.S. Are You sure that You didn't interchange in Slovene and/or Croatian those 2 meanings?


 
I also think so.

My Slo-Eng dictionary says:
_zajec_ zoologija hare; 
_kunec_ rabbit; arhaično coney; 


Ok, I know they belong to the diffents species, but let's make it simple, stupid: 
_zajec_ is that one living freely on the fields and _kunec_ is the one you have it locked in a cage and you feed it for your own food.


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## Duya

Tolovaj_Mataj said:


> Ok, I know they belong to the diffents species, but let's make it simple, stupid:
> _zajec_ is that one living freely on the fields and _kunec_ is the one you have it locked in a cage and you feed it for your own food.



Checking back Wikipedia and other resources: The most apparent distinction is that rabbits dig burrows, while hares live in shallow nests. Rabbits are born blind and helpless, while hares are born life-ready. As you said, rabbits can be domesticated, and hares aren't (can't ?). However, there *are* both wild rabbits and hares.

Serbo-Croatian usage seems to be thoroughly (self-)confusing/confused. In common speech, both hares and rabbits would be called "zec". If one wants to emphasize that it's domestic, "kunić" would be used instead. See e.g. http://www.forum.hr/showthread.php?t=289237.

So, if I haven't read this thread, I'd have sweared that rabbit=zec and hare=kunić. Morton Benson dictionary, however, says rabbit="pitomi zec, kunić", hare="zec". Biologists would probably agree with him... 

I'll better stop now as my head starts to hurt...


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## Thomas1

In Polish we also call a _rabbit król_.

Tom


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## lavverats

In Bulgarian: Same as in Echo Chamber's post.


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## dudasd

Duya said:


> Serbo-Croatian usage seems to be thoroughly (self-)confusing/confused. In common speech, both hares and rabbits would be called "zec".
> 
> ...
> So, if I haven't read this thread, I'd have sweared that rabbit=zec and hare=kunić. Morton Benson dictionary, however, says rabbit="pitomi zec, kunić", hare="zec". Biologists would probably agree with him...
> 
> I'll better stop now as my head starts to hurt...


 
Biologist don't agree with Morton Benson though (and I must admit that his dictionary is very poor with explanations). Zoo encyclopaedia (Vuk Karadžić, Beograd) distincts them as two subspecies of Leporidae family (zec having longer and stronger hind legs, as well as longer ears, etc; as much as I could notice, their fur is of a different quality too). Probably you just didn't have much exerience with rabbits and hares, I've heard so many people who distinct them without problem, be they wild or domestic. 

Off topic, but useful: I recommend the wonderful novel of Richard Adams, "Watership Down", for those who want to learn about habits of hares and to learn how to tell them from rabbits.


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## Maroseika

As for hare - kunec, kunić , that's rather weird, because it is apperently connected with Russian куница having numerous parallels in the Slavic and Baltic languages (Max Vasmer):
Bulg. куна
Serb. ку́на (also Croatian money, like in Ancient Russia)
Sloven. kúnа
Pol., Czeck, Slov. kuna,
Lith. kiáunė 
Latv. саûnа.
(and even καυνάκης - barbarian fur clothes)
However this is not hare, but a marten! When and how this stem could shift to another animal? Maybe due to the fur?

By the way, according to Vasmer, králík, кролик and others are the calque from New-High-Dutch Künigl, Königshase (small king) < Latin cunīculus.


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## dudasd

Some etymologists also derive "Kunić" directly from _K__ünigel(haas)_, _Könighase _< _cuniculus. _(My first association was _kuna _too so I checked.)


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## sokol

dudasd said:


> Some etymologists also derive "Kunić" directly from _K__ünigel(haas)_, _Könighase _< _cuniculus. _(My first association was _kuna _too so I checked.)


The German word still exists (in Austrian dialect it is 'Kinihaas') but stands for the rabbit - or more precisely, for the _domesticated _rabbit. A hare never could be called 'Kinihaas'.

This is what stands against the etymology _kunić < Künigelhaas_ in case you are right about _kunić_ meaning hare rather than rabbit, but it seems you aren't completely convinced yourself.
Apart from that it is also possible that a semantic change took place - that the German loan took over the meaning for _hare _while the Slavic one stayed to mean _rabbit:_ this too wouldn't be unlikely, stranger things have happened with loaned words.


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## dudasd

sokol said:


> This is what stands against the etymology _kunić < Künigelhaas_ in case you are right about _kunić_ meaning hare rather than rabbit, but it seems you aren't completely convinced yourself.


 
You probably mistook me for Duya, _he _was confused about hares and rabbits... I am very convinced though.


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## sokol

dudasd said:


> You probably mistook me for Duya, _he _was confused about hares and rabbits... I am very convinced though.


Oh sorry - indeed I did.

In that case, with _zajec _(Slovenian) being _hare _the semantic connection with _Küniglhaas _and _kunić _of course would be more than perfect.


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## kusurija

Maroseika said:


> ...
> ...
> ...
> Pol., Czech, Slov. kuna,
> Lithuanian kiaunė
> Latv. саûn(?)а. (maybe cauna?)
> ...
> ...
> 
> By the way, according to Vasmer, králík, кролик and others are the calque from New-High-Dutch Künigl, Königshase (in German slang: Königl - kusurija's note) (small king) < Latin cunīculus.



Btw. in Czech _králík_ (rabbit=Oryctolagus cuniculus) sounds (and ethymologically is) as diminutive of _král_ (king).
But now _král_ (king) has no diminutive (králík) and
_
králík_ (rabbit) has diminutive králíček (little rabbit,  but not very little king). 

Feminine gender of _králík_ (rabbit)  is _králice_ or much more often simply _samice_ (=she[animal]).

I thing, that similar situation is in most of other Slavic languages and some other languages (e.g. German family) too.


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## Kolan

kusurija said:


> Btw. in Czech _králík_ (rabbit=Oryctolagus cuniculus) sounds (and ethymologically is) as diminutive of _král_ (king).
> But now _král_ (king) has no diminutive (králík) and
> _
> králík_ (rabbit) has diminutive králíček (little rabbit,  but not very little king).
> 
> Feminine gender of _králík_ (rabbit)  is _králice_ or much more often simply _samice_ (=she[animal]).


Russian diminutive for *кролик *would be *кроличек*, whereas for *король* - _*королёк *_(rather ironically and casual).
Feminine for кролик - *крольчиха*.


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## mcibor

kusurija said:


> Btw. in Czech _králík_ (rabbit=Oryctolagus cuniculus) sounds (and ethymologically is) as diminutive of _král_ (king).
> But now _král_ (king) has no diminutive (králík) and
> _
> králík_ (rabbit) has diminutive králíček (little rabbit,  but not very little king).
> 
> Feminine gender of _králík_ (rabbit)  is _králice_ or much more often simply _samice_ (=she[animal]).
> 
> I thing, that similar situation is in most of other Slavic languages and some other languages (e.g. German family) too.



Yes, in Polish 
king = król (no diminutive)
rabbit = królik (as would be diminutive from king)
has a diminutive = króliczek


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