different between burrow vs cuniculus

English

Etymology

From Middle English borowe, borewe, borw?, bur?e, burh, burye (“refuge for an animal, lair, burrow”), apparently a variant of Middle English burgh (“fortified dwelling, stronghold, refuge”) (see borough) and thus from Old English burh, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold, city”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?er??- (“high”), but this sense is not known in Old English burh. Compare, however, Dutch cognate burcht, which has a similar sense.

It may be related to bury (“to dig”), in which case it would be derived from Proto-Indo-European *b?erg?- (“to protect, defend, save, preserve”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b????/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?b??o?/ (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• (US) IPA^(key): /?b??o?/ (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• Rhymes: -?r??
• Homophone: borough (one pronunciation)

Noun

burrow (plural burrows)

1. A tunnel or hole, often as dug by a small creature.
   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in.

2. (mining) A heap or heaps of rubbish or refuse.
3. Obsolete form of barrow. A mound.
4. Obsolete form of borough. An incorporated town.

Translations

Verb

burrow (third-person singular simple present burrows, present participle burrowing, simple past and past participle burrowed)

1. (intransitive) to dig a tunnel or hole
2. (intransitive) (with adverbial of direction) to move underneath or press up against in search of safety or comfort

3. (intransitive) (with into) to investigate thoroughly

Translations

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cun?culus.

Noun

cuniculus (plural cuniculi)

1. a burrow or low underground passage
2. a burrow in the skin made by a mite

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ???????? (kóniklos), probably of Iberian or Celtiberian origin; compare Basque untxi (“rabbit”), Mozarabic conchair (“greyhound”). The original meaning “burrow” adapted to the rabbit or vice versa.

Attested beginning from Cicero and Varro.

Alternative forms

• cuniculum, cuniclus, cunicolus, coniculus, conicolus

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ku?ni?.ku.lus/, [k??ni?k????s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ku?ni.ku.lus/, [ku?ni?kulus]

Noun

cun?culus m (genitive cun?cul?, feminine cun?cula); second declension

1. a rabbit
2. a rabbit burrow
   1. a mine, underground tunnel or gallery

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Related terms

• cun?cul?rium

Descendants

• Latin: cun?clus (see there for further descendants)
• ? English: cuniculus
• ? Italian: cunicolo
• ? Portuguese: cunículo

See also

• cuneus
• cunnus

References

• “cun?culus” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present

Further reading

• cuniculus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cuniculus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cuniculus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• cuniculus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
• cuniculus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cuniculus in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin