jack-rabbit (n.)

"公驴," 1727年，来自 jack（n.）+ ass（n.1）。1784年（伊格纳修斯·桑乔）证实了蔑视性的意思是“愚蠢的人”。相关词汇： Jackassism（1837年，美国英语）； jackassery（1833年）。

常见的穴居哺乳动物，被认为是啮齿动物，以繁殖能力强而著称，14世纪后期， rabet，“兔子的幼崽”，疑似来自瓦隆语 robète 或类似的北法语方言单词，是弗拉芒语或中古荷兰语 robbe “兔子”的小型化形式，其起源不详。[利伯曼]。成年兔子在18世纪之前被称为 coney（参见）。

Zoologically speaking, there are no native rabbits in the United States; they are all hares. But the early colonists, for some unknown reason, dropped the word hare out of their vocabulary, and it is rarely heard in American speech to this day. When it appears it is almost always applied to the so-called Belgian hare, which, curiously enough, is not a hare at all, but a true rabbit. [Mencken, "The American Language"]

从动物学的角度来看，美国没有本土的兔子； 它们都是野兔。但早期的殖民者出于某种未知的原因，将 hare 这个词从他们的词汇中删除了，直到今天在美国的语言中很少听到。当它出现时，几乎总是用于所谓的比利时野兔，有趣的是，它实际上并不是野兔，而是真正的兔子。[门肯，“美国语言”]

Rabbit punch “颈部砍击”（1915）因类似于看守员处理受伤的兔子的方法而得名。从帽子里拿出兔子作为魔术师的把戏，最早见于1843年。美国南部黑人文化中， Rabbit's foot “幸运符”可追溯至1879年。早期的参考文献是将其用作涂抹化妆粉的工具。

[N]ear one of them was the dressing-room of the principal danseuse of the establishment, who was at the time of the rising of the curtain consulting a mirror in regard to the effect produced by the application of a rouge-laden rabbit's foot to her cheeks, and whose toilet we must remark, passim, was not entirely completed. [New York Musical Review and Gazette, Nov. 29, 1856]

[N]ear one of them was the dressing-room of the principal danseuse of the establishment, who was at the time of the rising of the curtain consulting a mirror in regard to the effect produced by the application of a rouge-laden rabbit's foot to her cheeks, and whose toilet we must remark, passim, was not entirely completed. [New York Musical Review and Gazette, Nov. 29, 1856]

Rabbit-hole 可追溯至1705年。Rabbit ears “双极电视天线”来源于1950年。Grose 的1785年《俚语词典》中有“RABBIT CATCHER. A midwife.”（兔子捕手。助产士。）