Forms: 5 connynge erthe, conyngherth, conyngerthe, Sc. cunnyngarth, 6 cony earth, 6–9 coney (conie, etc.) -garth. [A corruption of ME. conyng-erthe, conig-erthe ‘cony earth,’ in which the final g has been transferred to the second element, which has thus come to be identified with GARTH ‘yard, enclosure.’] A rabbit-warren.
c. 1430. Lydg., in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 26. With hem that fyrrettyth, robbe conyngherthys [v.r. conyngerys].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 90. Connyngere, or connynge erthe, cunicularium.
1493. in Privy Purse Exp. Hen. VII., ibid., 90. For making of the conyngerthe pale.
1494. Sc. Acts Jas. III. (1814), 107 (Jam.). That na man … tak cunnyngis out of wtheris cunnyngarthis.
1530. Palsgr., 208/1. Cony garthe, garenne.
1552. Huloet, Conigare, or cony earth.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 352. The North downs towards the Tamis for the Conny-garthe.
1886. J. K. Johnstone, Isle of Axholme, 31. The Coney Garth at Haxey, and Koning’s Garth at Wroot.
1890. E. Peacock, (in letter). There is a field in this parish [Bottesford] called the Coney Garth.
