Br'er Rabbit
/ˌbrɛər ˈræbɪt/noun
A clever trickster rabbit and central figure in African American folktales, especially the versions popularized by Joel Chandler Harris.
Did you know?Br’er Rabbit belongs to a wider African and African American trickster tradition in which seemingly powerless characters defeat stronger opponents through wit rather than force.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bʰréh₂tēr
“Brother; a male sibling”
Old English
Old English
brōþor
“Brother, male sibling or fellow member of a group”
Middle English
Middle English
rabet
“Rabbit; a small burrowing animal, from an Old French or related northern French form”
18th–19th Century
English dialect
Br'er
“A spoken or dialectal contraction of brother”
19th Century
African American English
Br'er Rabbit
“Brother Rabbit, a clever trickster character in oral animal tales”
1880s
American English
Br'er Rabbit
“The literary character popularized in Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories”