Semblance of a Whole

Rabbiting on About Bunnies

Spring is springing, and with it come the inevitable thoughts of small furry creatures, with and without holiday accessories such as baskets of eggs or chocolate.

So is it "little rabbit Foo Foo" or "little bunny Foo Foo"? I refer to the famous abuser of field mice. For me it has always been and always will be little bunny Foo Foo, but apparently there are diverging versions of the famous tale of rodent delinquency. Is it a regional thing, or what? A Google search reveals 5,040 results for "little bunny foo foo" and only 2,550 odd for "little rabbit foo foo," so it would appear that the bunnies have it. Apparently, I am not the first to ask this question. A bit more searching reveals the following posting from someone named Dave Wilton on alt.folklore.urban:

There are definitely two separate literary traditions at work here. According to the OED2, the earliest reference for Bunny/Rabbit Foo Foo is Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, "The Knight's Tale:"

"And in the grove, at tyme and place yset, This bunnie Fewfew and this field maus be met. To chaungen gan the colour in hir face;"

The next reference is from Shakespeare, in a sonnet believed to have been written in 1609 (about the time he was hacking the Bible):

"Clear wells spring not, sweet birds sing not, Green plants bring not forth their dye. Herd stands weeping, flocks all sleeping, Nymphs back peeping fearfully,
For Rabbitt Foofoo hath killed a mouse."

H.L. Mencken's History of the American Language, however cites a 1623 manuscript from the Plymouth colony that claims John Alden sang a "lullabye about Bunnie Foofoo" to his children.

From here, the trail disappears for several centuries. The OED2
cites a 1910 draft manuscript by B. Potter titled "Peter, Mopsy, Flopsy, and Foo-Foo Rabbit."

Back on this side of the pond, the OED2 cites a 1925 letter by Zelda Fitzgerald records that "Scott is quite upset because the publisher elided a poem about Bunny Foo-Foo from This Side of Paradise. Scott believed it to be essential to the narrative."

In the same year, Ernest Hemingway's journal records on 25 June (cited in Random House Hist. Dic of Amer. Slang): "Had a long argument with Joyce and Stein today. He recited some doggerel about Little Rabbit Foo-Foo. Gertrude and I recalled it as Bunny Foo-Foo. Became quite heated, and Joyce stiffed us by leaving without paying the check. Bastard."

The tentative conclusion must be that "Bunny" is the older, but changed to "Rabbit" quite early on in Britain. In America, the older form seems to have been preserved. So Americans that use Rabbit Foo-Foo are following the British tradition.

Even if Wilton made it all up, it's very convincing, and since I'm entirely too lazy to check any of his sources (this from a professional librarian!) , I feel justified in holding to the argument that Foo Foo was properly known as a bunny. Those who disagree consider yourselves warned. The "Good Fairy" will turn dissenters into goons. Or is it the "Blue Fairy"?