On Thursday, March 6, 1997 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-5, Dave Wilton wrote:   
   > Michele Tepper wrote:   
   > >   
   > > Harry MF Teasley  wrote:   
   > > >Michele Tepper (mtepper@panix.com) wrote:   
   > > >   
   > > >> Let me get the thread started off right: It's "Little *Rabbit* Foo-Foo"!   
   > > >   
   > > >The original poster was right, you degenerate.  It's "Little Bunny Foo   
   > > >Foo" and you know it.   
   > >   
   > > "Rabbit Foo-Foo."  Rabbit, rabbit, RABBIT!   
   > >   
   > > I grew up in Brooklyn, Harry, so I know the truth.   
   >   
   > There are definitely two separate literary traditions at work here.   
   > According to the OED2, the earliest reference for Bunny/Rabbit Foo   
   > Foo is Chaucer's _The Canterbury Tales_, "The Knight's Tale:"   
   >   
   > "And in the grove, at tyme and place yset,   
   > This bunnie Fewfew and this field maus be met.   
   > To chaungen gan the colour in hir face;"   
   >   
   > The next reference is from Shakespeare, in a sonnet believed   
   > to have been written in 1609 (about the time he was hacking the   
   > Bible):   
   >   
   > "Clear wells spring not, sweet birds sing not,   
   > Green plants bring not forth their dye.   
   > Herd stands weeping, flocks all sleeping,   
   > Nymphs back peeping fearfully,   
   > For Rabbitt Foofoo hath killed a mouse."   
   >   
   > H.L. Mencken's _History of the American Language_, however   
   > cites a 1623 manuscript from the Plymouth colony that claims   
   > John Alden sang a "lullabye about Bunnie Foofoo" to his   
   > children.   
   >   
   > From here, the trail disappears for several centuries. The OED2   
   > cites a 1910 draft manuscript by B. Potter titled "Peter, Mopsy,   
   > Flopsy, and Foo-Foo Rabbit."   
   >   
   > Back on this side of the pond, the OED2 cites a 1925 letter by   
   > Zelda Fitzgerald records that "Scott is quite upset because the   
   > publisher elided a poem about Bunny Foo-Foo from _This Side of   
   > Paradise_. Scott believed it to be essential to the narrative."   
   >   
   > In the same year, Ernest Hemingway's journal records on 25 June   
   > (cited in Random House Hist. Dic of Amer. Slang): "Had a long   
   > argument with Joyce and Stein today. He recited some doggerel   
   > about Little Rabbit Foo-Foo. Gertrude and I recalled it as   
   > Bunny Foo-Foo. Became quite heated, and Joyce stiffed us by   
   > leaving without paying the check. Bastard."   
   >   
   > The tentative conclusion must be that "Bunny" is the older,   
   > but changed to "Rabbit" quite early on in Britain. In America,   
   > the older form seems to have been preserved. So Americans that   
   > use Rabbit Foo-Foo are following the British tradition.   
   >   
   > --   
   > Dave Wilton   
   > dwilton@sprynet.com   
   > http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dwilton/homepage.htm   
      
      
   For the record:   
      
   https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/the-hoax-beh   
   nd-little-bunny-foo-foo?page=2   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)