When you think of the word binky, a child’s pacifier probably comes to mind. But it’s also a term known among rabbit fanciers. It refers to when bunnies frolic and jump around. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Binky”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Grant, we’ve talked about the word binky.
What’s your understanding of that word?
That’s a pacifier for a baby.
Yep, yep.
But recently I learned a completely different meaning of the word.
And the person who enlightened me is Bruce Atchison.
And he’s from Alberta, Canada.
And he belongs to several pet rabbit groups.
Pet rabbit groups.
Yeah, yeah.
You know where I’m going with this?
No.
It’s great.
He emailed us to say that among rabbit fanciers, a binky is when a bunny leaps up in the air and does a 180.
Isn’t that great?
I’ve seen cats do that.
Yes, yes.
And it turns out there are a zillion videos on YouTube of rabbits binky-ing.
And he says it’s also an exclamation of ecstatic joy of living.
Rabbits, like other animals, get into frisky moods when they let off steam.
A binky is part of their happy frolicking.
So they leap from a standing position and do a 180 and flop back down onto the ground.
Shake their little bunny tails.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you sort of see that with kitties, too.
They do that, and then they do Frank and Kitty, where their paws are way up over their head.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and I’ve also known some office workers to do sort of the same thing around 5 o’clock, almost quitting time.
They start running around the office, going to the Xerox machine.
So binky is just an excuse to talk about cute bunnies.
Well, it’s a new word on me.
It actually was an excuse to go and look at a lot of videos online.
We will link to them.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
