Obs. Forms: 5 bony, 6 bounny, 7 bonny, 6–7 bunnye, 6 bunny. [perh. a. OF. bugne, beugne, var. forms of bigne, a swelling caused by a blow; cf. boine (dial.) under BOIN v.; also BUNION.] A lump, hump, or swelling; spec. a soft watery swelling on the joints of animals.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 43/2. Bony, or hurtynge Fleumon. Ibid., 44/1. Bony, or grete knobbe … gibbus.
1552. Huloet, Bownche or bunnye, gibba.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, II. cclxxix. (1633), 793. Continual bunnies and looseness of certain joints.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. lxxvi. 347. The Hough bonny is a round swelling like a Paris ball.
1667. N. Fairfax, in Phil. Trans., II. 482. In some places his head bled; in others Bunnyes arose.
1784. Sir J. Cullum, Hist. Hawsted, 170. A Bunny, a swelling from a blow.
