[gdw]
According to the OED, the English word rabbit n.1 (Third Edition, 2008), first attested a1398, derives from an unattested Anglo-Norman or Middle French *rabotte, with suffix substitution. These two fifteenth-century attestations in Feast Menus do not provide evidence of the pre-existence of the word in Anglo-Norman, and may well be Middle English borrowings, appearing in a late source text that was prone to this kind of language-mixing. For further, indirect, evidence of the lexeme in Anglo-Norman, see rabot1.