silflay

English

Etymology

Coined by Richard Adams in Watership Down as part of the fictional language Lapine, which in the story is spoken by rabbits. The word silflay (“to eat outdoors”) is derived from silf (“outdoors”) + flay (“food”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪlf.leɪ/

Noun

silflay (uncountable)

1. (of rabbits) The act of eating outdoors.
   • 1981, Keith Waterhouse, Willis Hall, The Trials of Worzel Gummidge, Puffin, →ISBN, page 171:

     Rabbits were out on silflay, and fat spiders hung motionless in the centre of damp webs.

   • 1984, Town and Country Planning, volume 53, number 10, page 287:

     Picnickers, golden eagles and bunnies sunning themselves on silflay will therefore be glad that FoE has drawn up a set of guidelines for local authorities and a code of conduct for ATB users.

   • 2003, Stephen King, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, 2nd edition, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 142:

     Three rabbits came, and once they were at silflay the gunslinger pulled leather. He took them down, skinned them, gutted them, and brought them back to the camp.

   • 2011, Rupert Schmitt, The Mad Professor, Bloomington: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 485:

     If I’m a rabbit I jump at sounds. I live in a burrow of motors. I want to jump, but cannot. The ceiling is too low in this burrow. Only rarely can I go out to silflay. I am aware of the coming and going of the sun because of a distant glow. I can barely perceive the white incandescence.