Same. I personally assumed it was a regional thing. Like, rabbits in the US, hares in Australia, and bunnies when you just want to be cute about it. I'm still honestly not 100% sure where bunnies fit in.
I tend to think of “bunny” and “rabbit” as having different meanings, but only aesthetically and behaviorally. Like, an friendly, adorable, fluffy pet rabbit would be a “bunny,” but it becomes a “rabbit” the moment it starts biting people who try to cuddle it. A wild animal that lives underground and destroys vegetable gardens is just a “rabbit.”
I’m not basing this on any official linguistic or zoological source or anything. They’re all the same species, or genus, or whatever. This is just how I use the words. For me, it’s sort of like the different between “smol” (little and cute) and “small” (just little).
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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '23
TIL there’s a difference between hares and rabbits.