From Booksmart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.
I'm John McWhorter, and for this episode, we are just going to jump all over the place like bunnies.
Specifically bunnies, because I want to do rabbit.
and go from there, because as mundane as it might seem, that word is actually very interesting.
It can take us all sorts of places,
and it becomes a kind of language and linguistics lesson in itself.
Hang in there with me.
Let's start here.
Rabbit.
Okay, it's that thing with long ears that pops around, and,
you know, they're actually rather inert creatures, I always find.
You know, basically just guinea pigs with long ears.
But, rabbit.
Now.
We know as a factoid that there's also a hair,
that there's a difference between a rabbit and a hair.
But to be perfectly honest, I'm never quite sure what a hair is.
And it's a word that I have never used spontaneously.
Like, for example,
I've probably said it more now and in one previous conversation that I'll tell you about later than I ever had.