Easter Bunny

English

Etymology

From Easter +‎ bunny, calque of German Osterhase (literally “Easter hare”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈiːs.tə ˈbʌ.ni/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈiːs.tɚ ˈbʌ.ni/

Proper noun

Easter Bunny (plural Easter Bunnies)

An Easter Bunny.

1. A symbolic rabbit sometimes depicted delivering Easter eggs to children.
   • 1905 April, Mary Dawson, “An Easter Bunny Party”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 40, page 461:

     An Easter Bunny Party

   • 1915 April 1, The Christian Advocate, volume 90, page 438:

     One day the old Easter Bunny looked out of his winter covert and Said to his Bunny-wife, who was busy coloring Easter eggs, “It is high time we set out to look for the Easter Lily.”

   • 2005, Danie Martin, Always Another Mountain: A Woman Hiking the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain to Mount Katahdin, Virtualbookworm Publishing, →ISBN, page 35:

     Soon I ran into two Easter Bunnies who gave me candy. Honest! All right, it was really two women wearing pink bunny hoods.

   • 2006 March 16, Bryan Thompson, “I Want My Mummy”, in Totally Spies!, season 2, episode 2, spoken by Alexandra “Alex” (Jennifer Hale as Samantha “Sam” and Katie Leigh), Marathon Media, via Teletoon:

     Yeah, remember? We’re Spies, we deal in fact, not chasing after Easter Bunnies.
     Yeah, right. Wait the Easter Bunny’s missing? A-ha-ha! Just kidding, guys! I know the Easter Bunny is tucked away safe in his little toadstool house up in the fjords of British Columbia.

   • 2014, Margy Johnson, Start Your Own Costume Character Business & Make Great Money Working at Home, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 73:

     Easter Bunnies can be booked for businesses (such as Malls), for churches, for community Easter Egg Hunts or even as a preferred birthday party costume character for a birthday that falls close to Easter.

   • 2016, Kimberley Kinder, DIY Detroit: Making Do in a City without Services, University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN:

     Some residents rotated decorations seasonally by displaying holiday wreaths in the winter and plastic Easter Bunnies and pinwheels in the spring.

   • 2016, Richard J. Gonzales, “Conclusion”, in Raza Rising: Chicanos in North Texas, University of North Texas Press, →ISBN, page 287:

     Two costumed Easter Bunnies, handing out plastic, candy-filled eggs and hugging children, hopped in our ranks.

Synonyms

• Easter Rabbit

Translations

Symbolic rabbit sometimes depicted delivering Easter eggs to children

• Central Franconian: Osterhaas
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 復活節兔／复活节兔 (Fùhuójié tù)

• Danish: påskehare (da) c
• Dutch: paashaas (nl) m
• Esperanto: Paska leporo
• Finnish: pääsiäispupu (fi)
• French: lapin de Pâques (fr) m
• German: Osterhase (de) m
• Greek: πασχαλινό λαγουδάκι n (paschalinó lagoudáki)
• Hungarian: húsvéti nyúl (hu)
• Hunsrik: Oostrehaas m
• Irish: coinín na Cásca m
• Italian: coniglietto pasquale m
• Japanese: イースターバニー (Īsutā Banī)
• Korean: 부활절 토끼 (Buhwaljeol tokki)
• Lao: ກະຕ່າຍອີສເຕີ (ka tāi ʼīt tœ̄)
• Low German:

  German Low German: Oosterhaas

• Luxembourgish: Ouschterhues m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: påskehare m

  Nynorsk: påskehare m

• Pennsylvania German: Oschderhaas m
• Polish: zając wielkanocny m
• Portuguese: coelhinho da Páscoa (pt) m
• Russian: пасха́льный за́яц m (pasxálʹnyj zájac)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: jatšowny wuchac m

• Spanish: conejo de Pascua m
• Swedish: påskhare (sv) c
• Thai: กระต่ายอีสเตอร์
• Turkish: paskalya tavşanı (tr)
• Ukrainian: великодній заєць m (velykodnij zajecʹ)

Further reading

• Easter Bunny on Wikipedia.Wikipedia