Bunny

How to spell bunny

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bunny

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bunny mean?

1. nounA rabbit, especially a young or small one, used as an affectionate everyday term.

Bunny in a sentence

• The children watched a bunny hop across the lawn at dawn.

• She bought a chocolate bunny for the holiday basket.

Where does bunny come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Bunny is an affectionate diminutive that grew out of the older English word 'bun', a regional and dialect term once used for a rabbit or a squirrel, and also as a fond name for a small or pretty creature. The 'bun' element may go back to a Scottish and northern English word for the tail or scut of a hare, though the trail is not perfectly clear. By adding the cosy ending '-y', which English loves to attach to pet names and nursery words, speakers in the seventeenth century turned 'bun' into 'bunny', a tender label first applied to people and only later settled firmly on rabbits. For a long stretch it doubled as a term of endearment for a woman or child before its modern furry sense took over. Because the word is short and the trap is simply the doubled 'n' before the '-y', most adults spell it without trouble, though the pronunciation tempts an occasional single 'n'.

How the word is built

• bun (rabbit, from dialectal 'bun' for a rabbit or squirrel)
• -y (diminutive/affectionate suffix)