zaķis

The origin of this word is unclear. Traditionally, it is explained as a borrowing from Belarusian dialectal за́йка (zájka), reshaped under the influence of kaķis (“cat”), but the similar Sudovian cognate makes this explanation dubious. It is difficult also to make it compatible with the Lithuanian and Slavic cognates. For the Slavic terms, there are various opinions, generally leading up to the Proto-Indo-European stem *ǵʰey- (“to drive, to exhort, to move quickly”). It is possible that the root of all those forms may be some pre-Indo-European word (*ǵa-, *ǵay-, *ǵuy-) to which Indo-European suffixes were attached. Cognates include Lithuanian dialectal zuĩkis, Sudovian zags, Old Church Slavonic заѩць (zajęcĭ), Russian, Belarusian за́яц (zájac), Ukrainian за́єць (zájecʹ), Czech zajíc, Polish zając. [1]

• IPA^(key): [zacis]

zaķis m (2nd declension)

1. hare (esp. Lepus europaeus)

   pelēkais, baltais zaķis ― gray, white hare

   bailīgs kā zaķis ― timid as a hare

   nobijies kā zaķis ― scared as a hare

   Lieldienu zaķis ― Easter Bunny

2. (informal) stowaway; person who rides (a bus, a train, etc.) without paying the fare

   braukt par zaķi ― to ride as a hare

   “zaķiem” būs jāmaksā 40 latu sods ― hares will have to pay a fine of 40 lats

In English, rabbit is the preferred word when one does not want to distinguish rabbits from hares; in Latvian, zaķis (“hare”) is preferred, and trusis (“rabbit”) is less frequent. (Note that the Latvian Easter Bunny is in fact the Easter Hare.)

• zaķene
• zaķēns
• zaķītis

• trusis