[Ads-l] Brer Rabbit: Eggcorn and Antedating

[Baker, John]

Brer Rabbit, an anthropomorphic rabbit trickster, is the central character in the African-American tales retold by Joel Chandler Harris, who attributed them to the fictional Uncle Remus.  "Brer," in these stories, is a shortening of "Brother," a title of respect and also applied to the other animals in the tales.  It is often spelled "Br'er," but the Brer spelling appears to be older and is the spelling used by the OED.  By far the most famous such story is that of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, in which Brer Rabbit convinces Brer Fox and Brer Bear to kill him by throwing him in the briar patch.

I recently came across the eggcorn spelling Briar Rabbit, from someone who knew the stories only from oral accounts.  It does have a logic to it, although I suppose it might have been more difficult for Brer Rabbit to convince Brer Fox and Brer Bear if "briar" were actually part of his name.  Of course, the Tar Baby story is only one of many Brer Rabbit stories, and the others have nothing to do with briar patches.

Although the characters and this particular story are closely associated with Joel Chandler Harris, he invented neither the characters nor the story (although the spelling "Brer" appears to be Harris's).  The OED has a Harris story, published in the Atlanta Daily Constitution on March 28, 1878, as the earliest use of "Brer."  Here is an excerpt from a slightly earlier magazine article that used the spelling "Buh":

"The _dramatis personae_ are always honored with the title of _Buh_, which is generally supposed to be an abbreviation of the word "brother" (the _br_ being sounded without the whir of the _r_), but it probably is a title of respect equivalent to our Mr.  The animals which figure in the stories are chiefly Buh Rabbit, Buh Lion, Buh Wolf and Buh Deer, though sometimes we hear of Buh Elephant, Buh Fox, Buh Cooter and Buh Goose.  . . . Of the Buh fables, that which is by all odds the greatest favorite, and which appears in the greatest variety of forms, is the "Story of Buh Rabbit and the Tar Baby.""


William Owens, "Folk-Lore of the Southern Negroes," Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, pp. 748 - 55, at 749 - 50 (Dec. 1877).  The article includes a detailed recounting of the Tar Baby story, in different form from that of the version by Harris.


John Baker



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