Karnickel

German

Etymology

From earlier German Low German kanickel, from a variant of Middle Low German kanīn, from Middle French connin (see Kaninchen). The form is probably based on Latin cunīculus. The -r-might have entered the word Brandenburg area, where non-rhotic and strongly rhotic Low German dialects neighboured. The word was probably pronounced with [äː], a sound close to the northern Brandenburg realisation of /ar/, which is [aː]. This lead to a pronunciation with [ar] for some southern, rhotic speakers, which was still considered a random idiosyncrasy in 1903.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

Karnickel n (genitive Karnickels, plural Karnickel, diminutive Karnickelchen n)

1. (Northern Germany) rabbit

Declension

Declension of Karnickel

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Karnickel	die	Karnickel
genitive	eines	des	Karnickels	der	Karnickel
dative	einem	dem	Karnickel	den	Karnickeln
accusative	ein	das	Karnickel	die	Karnickel

Synonyms

• Kaninchen n

Further reading

• Karnickel in Duden online