Hutche

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old-fashioned chest or box used for storing valuables or provisions ; a small wooden enclosure with a wire front where rabbits or other small pets are kept
2. A storage box or coffer of the kind used in earlier centuries ; a small pen or cage, often raised off the ground, that houses rabbits or similar animals
3. A wooden chest once used to keep goods safe ; a compartment-like enclosure for keeping small animals such as rabbits in a yard or garden

Etymology: Before it named a rabbit's enclosure, this word meant a chest. It comes from Old French "huche", a storage chest or coffer, which probably derives from Late Latin "hutica". Such chests held bread, grain and valuables, and the word also covered a kneading trough, a box in which dough was worked. The move to animal housing follows from the object's shape. A box with a lid and a closed compartment could just as easily shelter a creature. Over time the storage senses faded, and the animal sense became the one most people know. "Hutche" is an older spelling of the same word, and it has largely given way to "hutch".

Synonyms: hutch, coop, cage, chest, box