www.alphadictionary.com

• lagopodous •

Pronunciation: lê-gah-pê-dês • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Rabbit-footed, having feet like a rabbit. 2. Having feet thickly covered with feathers or fur, like the Alpine ptarmigans (Lagopus alpinus) in the picture.

Notes: Here is a word that you might think peripheral enough to omit from your vocabulary. However, it has a slightly more specific meaning than mere rabbit-footed, a word I am sure you find great use for. A creature (especially a ptarmigan) with feet like a rabbit is a lagopus—and probably a sour puss, too, if he isn't a rabbit. Lagopodously would be in a shaggy-footed manner.

In Play: I know what you are thinking: why would any normal human being need this word? But I was frustrated for years at the lack of a word to describe my aunt, who loved flopping lagopodously around the house in her bunny slippers. If you look around, you'll find places where it plays well, too: "Jerry Attrick looks like a lagopodous leprechaun, lunging through the snow in his green hat, outdated ski suit, and oversized snowshoes."

Word History: Today's Good Word is made up of Greek lagos "rabbit" + pod- (pous) "foot". Lagos is a distant relation of English slack, sharing a common ancestor (s)leg-/(s)log- "slack, loose", with a Fickle S, a loose S that often fell off in the process of historical development. It also explains the relation of Latin laxus "slack, loose" and English slack. The connection between "slack" and bunnies is those slack, floppy ears on bunnies' heads.

With due respect to Dr. Goodword's lagopodous aunt, another
word site (heresy!) comments, "...but it can also be used to mean a lax, slack, borderline lazy person (like someone who doesn’t get dressed, and stays on the couch in their pajamas and fluffy slippers all day; legitimate employment or not.)

http://unusedwords.com/2013/09/30/lagop ... nqy0o.dpuf

And more loosely about loose rabbits, does anyone see the unintended humor in "a Fickle S, a loose S that often fell off in the process of historical development?"

....not likely to be in my vocab.

Not required too often I'd warrant - I tried to think of ways to bend it into a metaphorical meaning involving the luckiness of rabbit's feet but nothing really seems to fit to me.