Did You Know?
No doubt you've heard the Aesop's fable about the speedy hare and the plodding tortoise. The hare may have lost that race due to a tactical error (stopping to take a nap before reaching the finish line), but the long-eared mammal's overall reputation for swiftness remains intact. It's no surprise, then, that "hare" is used as a verb meaning "to move quickly." The noun "hare" (which refers, in its most specific zoological sense, to a member of the genus Lepus whose young are usually able to hop a few minutes after birth) is a very old word. It first appeared as "hara" in a Latin-Old English glossary around the year 700. The verb was in use by 1719, and people have been "haring off" and "haring about" ever since.
