Coney Meant Rabbit, and Coney Island Is Named After Them
A coney is a rabbit, in older English. The word faded from speech but survives in place names and in heraldry.
A coney is a rabbit, especially in older English and in the fur trade. The word was once the ordinary name for the adult animal — *rabbit* meant only the young — and it survives in place names across the English-speaking world, including Coney Island in New York, named by Dutch settlers for the rabbits that lived there. It also appears in the King James Bible for a small rock-dwelling animal, the hyrax.
- A rabbit. *A coney in the field.*
- Rabbit fur. *Coney fur trim.*
- A hyrax (biblical). *The coneys of the rock.*
- A grouper fish. *A spotted coney.*
- Coney Island — the New York beach. *A day at Coney Island.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | coney | One coney. |
| Plural | coneys | Several coneys. |
| Alt spelling | cony | Also written cony. |
| Modern word | rabbit | A rabbit. |
| Latin | cuniculus | A rabbit. |
- Coney was the usual word before rabbit.History.
- Coney Island is named for its rabbits.Place name.
- The coat had coney trim.Fur trade.
Why coney faded
- Coney named the adult animal; rabbit named the young
- Rabbit spread to cover both and became the standard word
- The pronunciation of coney rhymed with honey, which invited crude puns
- That embarrassment helped push the word out of polite use
- It survives in place names, heraldry and the fur trade
Anglo-French *conis*, plural of *conil*, from Latin *cuniculus*, a rabbit, a word possibly borrowed from Iberian.
Is Coney Island named after rabbits?
The usual explanation is yes, from the Dutch Konijn Eiland, rabbit island, for the animals that lived there.
Why did English stop using coney?
Rabbit spread to cover the adult animal too, and the older word's pronunciation made it awkward in polite speech.