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You are here: Home / Language / How Many Wild Rabbits Are There In North America and Where Did the Term Rabbit Punch Come From?

How Many Wild Rabbits Are There In North America and Where Did the Term Rabbit Punch Come From?

April 13, 2020 by Karen Hill

There are no rabbits native to North America and there never were.

The North American animal is properly called a hare, so the answer to the question is zero rabbits.

Early North American settlers dropped the word hare from their vocabulary.

The American term jack rabbit is an abbreviation of the original name jackass-rabbit, so named because of its long ears.

A “rabbit punch,” describing an illegal action in boxing, comes from a gamekeeper’s method of dispatching an injured rabbit by “chopping” it on the back of its neck with the side of the hand.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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