Dubious Etymologies: "Dead Rabbits"...

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, on the basis of my one summer-school course in the Munster
dialect of Irish, I was unable to find any word in any on-line
Gaeilge-Béarla / Béarla-Gaeilge Fócloir that might be pronounced
(something like) "dead" or (something like) "rabbit" in any meaning
whatsoever, though "Rabbit" is a well-known Irish surname, supposedly
a mis- / pseudo-translation of "O Coinín." (Note that some modern
Irish-English dictionaries *do* give "rabbit" as the meaning of
"coinín," though 19th-C. dictionaries supply a different word for
Irish.}

-Wilson

On 6/28/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Dubious Etymologies: "Dead Rabbits"...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Well, of course I do!  Thank you, Amazon.com's Search Inside Feature!
>
>   Anbinder cites contemporary evidence claiming there was no gang actually called 'The Dead Rabbits."  However, what's visible on Amazon makes no reference to any Irish etyma (or to any "Plug Uglies"), and Anbinder concludes that the "origin of the term 'Dead Rabbits' is uncertain."
>
>
>   JL
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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