'Welsh Rarebit' Is a Corruption of 'Welsh Rabbit'

Linguistic evidence suggests the opposite trajectory. 'Welsh rarebit' appears in documented sources from 1725, while 'rabbit' appears later as a folk-etymological back-formation. The cheese dish likely has no connection to rabbits at all; 'rarebit' derives from 'rare' (as in 'rarebit' meaning a choice or special dish), possibly influenced by archaic 'rarebite.' When English speakers encountered the unfamiliar word 'rarebit,' they retrospectively reinterpreted it as 'rabbit' (creating a false narrative about rabbit meat being a cheap Welsh food). Later still, Victorians seeking euphemism embraced 'rarebit' thinking it was a polite reinstatement of the 'true' term. Historical documentation and dictionaries support 'rarebit' as original, making this a case where apparent corruption actually reversed cause and effect through successive layers of folk etymology.