conill

Forms

conill m (plural conills)^[1] Old Catalan also wrote cunill, and Latin documents of the 10th and 11th centuries chonil.^[2][3] The DCVB records [kuníʎ], [koníʎ], [koní] and [kuní].^[4] In the Balearic Islands and the parts of Eastern Catalan where the old palatal is pronounced [j], it merges more or less with the preceding [i]: Palma and Manacor say [koní], the villages of the Serra de Tramuntana kept [kuníj], and Eivissa writes conii.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cunīculus (“rabbit; burrow, underground passage”).^[3][4][5][1]

The same Latin word is Occitan conilh, Old French conil, Italian coniglio, Spanish conejo and Portuguese coelho.^[6][7] Corominas notes that a hexameter of Martial shows a long ⟨ī⟩, which all these forms except the Portuguese one require.^[6]

The Latin word is probably of Iberian origin: Pliny and Aelian state that both the animal and its name came from Hispania.^[3][5][6][8] Corominas relates it to Basque untxi (“rabbit”), from an old diminutive.^[6][9] Wiktionary takes the Latin word as perhaps an Iberian or Celtiberian word with the Latin diminutive suffix.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin documents use the word already in Catalan form: ipsa silva cum ipsis chonilibus, “the wood with its rabbits”, in 978 in the cartulary of Sant Cugat, and quis prendidit unum chonil in boscho, someone who took a rabbit in the wood, in the middle of the 11th century.^[3] The first purely Catalan texts are of the 13th century: Llull's Llibre de meravelles has the fox recommend the rabbit to the lion king, and about 1283 the bailiff of Perpignan forbids anyone to take the king's white, mottled or black rabbits.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval records concern hunting and warrens: Marsili in 1314 describes two islands suited to rabbits, and the ordinances of Vallfogona of 1393 deal with the rabbits of an estate.^[2] The word belongs to every period and dialect, but Roussillon has replaced it with French lapin; place names such as Camp des Counils in the cadastre of 1807 show that conill was the old word there too.^[3] Labèrnia in 1839 still gave cunill as the main form.^[10]

The phrase anar en conill or tenir en conill “to be stark naked” is Valencian and Ibizan, while Catalonia says anar conill.^[3] Coromines explains it as a metonymy, “rabbit skin”, the commonest skin, then “skin” and “in one's skin, naked”, like Spanish en cueros.^[3] Martí Gadea records en conill in 1891, and the GDLC treats conill “naked” as an adjective.^[11][12] Other senses are a cut of beef from the leg muscles, the sternum of the pig, a cork float of a fishing net, and, in Perpignan, the vulva.^[4][13][14] In some card games it was the Spanish codillo.^[15] The conill porquí, the guinea pig, is recorded from 1750.^[14] Derivatives include conillar and coniller, both recorded in 1803.^[5]

Timeline

• 978 – chonilibus in a Latin document of the cartulary of Sant Cugat.^[3]
• c. 1050 – unum chonil in boscho in a document edited by Miret i Sans.^[3]
• c. 1283 – conils blanchs, ni bragatz ni negres in the ordinances of the bailiff of Perpignan.^[3][2]
• 1288–1289 – Llull's Llibre de meravelles.^[16]
• 1314 – Pere Marsili's chronicle writes cunils.^[2]
• 1750 – conill porquí recorded in Catalonia.^[14]
• 1803 – conillar and coniller first recorded.^[5]
• 1891 – Martí Gadea records en conill “naked”.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra defines the animal and the conill porquí.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rabbit, a mammal smaller than the hare, with long ears and hind legs longer than the forelegs (Oryctolagus cuniculus): Al bosc hi ha molts conills.^[13][12]
2. conill porquí or conillet d'Índies: the guinea pig.^[13]
3. A cut of beef or veal from the muscle of the legs; shank.^[13][12]
4. conillets a amagar: a variant of the children's game of hide-and-seek.^[13]
5. (colloquial, dialectal) The vulva.^[12][4]

Adjective

1. (colloquial) Stark naked; in Valencian en conill.^[12][18][19]

Word family

• conillada
• conillaire
• conillam
• conillar
• coniller
• conillera
• conillet
• esconillar-se

Related words

• cunicular
• Latin cunīculus
• Occitan conilh
• Spanish conejo

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. conill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 882
4. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. conill
5. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 234
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 173
7. ^ Alibert, Louis (1966), Dictionnaire occitan-français selon les parlers languedociens, Toulouse: Institut d'Études Occitanes, p. s.v. conilh
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conejo
10. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. conill
11. ^ a b Martí Gadea, Joaquim (1891), Novísimo diccionario general valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. conill
12. ^ a b c d e Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. conill
13. ^ a b c d e Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. conill
14. ^ a b c Aguiló i Fuster, Marià (1914–1934), Diccionari Aguiló: materials lexicogràfics, ed. Pompeu Fabra and Manuel de Montoliu, 8 vols., Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. conill
15. ^ Escrig, José (1851), Diccionario valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. conill
16. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. conill
17. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. conill
18. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. conill
19. ^ Ferrer Pastor, Francesc (1985), Diccionari general, València, p. s.v. conill