hare

英文词源

hare

hare: [OE] The hare seems originally to have been named from its colour. The word comes from prehistoric West and North Germanic *khason, which also produced German hase, Dutch haas, and Swedish and Danish hare, and if as has been suggested it is related to Old English hasu ‘grey’ and Latin cascus ‘old’, its underlying meaning would appear to be ‘grey animal’ (just as the bear and the beaver are etymologically the ‘brown animal’, and the herring may be the ‘grey fish’). Harrier ‘dog for hunting hares’ [16] was derived from hare on the model of Old French levrier (French lièvre means ‘hare’, and is related to English leveret ‘young hare’ [15]); it was originally harer, and the present-day form arose from confusion with harrier ‘falcon’ [16], a derivative of the verb harry.
=> harrier, herring, hoar

hare (n.)

Old English hara "hare," from West Germanic *hasan- (cognates: Old Frisian hasa, Middle Dutch haese, Dutch haas, Old High German haso, German Hase), of uncertain origin; possibly the original sense was "gray" (compare Old English hasu, Old High German hasan "gray"), from PIE *kas- "gray" (cognates: Latin canus "white, gray, gray-haired"). Perhaps cognate with Sanskrit sasah, Afghan soe, Welsh ceinach "hare." Rabbits burrow in the ground; hares do not.

þou hast a crokyd tunge heldyng wyth hownd and wyth hare. ["Jacob's Well," c. 1440]

hare (v.)

"to harry, harass," 1520s; meaning "to frighten" is 1650s; of uncertain origin; connections have been suggested to harry (v.) and to hare (n.). Related: Hared; haring.