1398, "young of the cony," from Fr. dialect (cf. Walloon
robète), dim. of Flem. or M.Du.
robbe "rabbit," of unknown origin. The adult was a
cony (q.v.) until 18c.
"Zoologically speaking, there are no native rabbits in the United States; they are all hares. But the early colonists, for some unknown reason, dropped the word hare out of their vocabulary, and it is rarely heard in American speech to this day. When it appears it is almost always applied to the so-called Belgian hare, which, curiously enough, is not a hare at all, but a true rabbit." [H.L. Mencken]
Rabbit punch "chop on the back of the neck" so called from resemblance to a gamekeeper's method of dispatching an injured rabbit.
Rabbit's foot "good luck charm" first attested 1879, in U.S. Southern black culture. Pulling rabbits from a hat as a conjurer's trick is first recorded 1877.
[rab-it] 
) -bit for 1–3.