Cette locution vient sans doute de ce que, à l’issue de la cérémonie funèbre, les assistants se réunissaient autrefois dans quelque restaurant avoisinant le cimetière et, en guise de repas de funérailles, mangeaient un lapin plus ou moins authentique.—Boutmy.
Concerning this expression, there is an anecdote of a typo who was lying in hospital at the point of death, and who informed his sorrowing friends that he would try and wait till the Friday morning, so that they might have all the Saturday and Sunday for the funeral feast.
Je tâcherai d’aller jusqu’à demain soir ... parceque les amis auraient ainsi samedi et dimanche pour boulotter mon “lapin.” Cela ne vaut-il pas le “plaudite!” de l’empereur Auguste, ou le “Baissez le rideau, la farce est jouée!” de notre vieux Rabelais?—Boutmy.
(Familiar and popular) C’est le —— qui a commencé is said ironically in allusion to a difference or fight between a strong man and a weak one, when the latter is worsted and blamed into the bargain. A cartoon of the late artist Gill, on the occasion of the assassination of Victor Noir by Pierre Bonaparte in the last days of the Third Empire, depicted the two principal actors in that mysterious affair under the features of a fierce bull-dog and a rabbit, with the saying, “C’est le lapin qui a commencé,” for a text line.
Lapiner (general), to cheat a prostitute by not paying her her dues.
Laqueuse, f. (familiar and popular), cocotte who walks in the vicinity of the lake at the Bois de Boulogne. See [Gadoue].
Larantqué, m. (popular and thieves’), two-franc coin.
Larbin, m. (general), man-servant, footman, “flunkey,” or “bone-picker.”
Le savoureux Lebeau ... ancien valet de pied aux Tuileries, laissait voir le hideux larbin qu’il était, âpre au gain et à la curée.—A. Daudet, Les Rois en Exil.
(Popular) Larbin savonné, knave of cards.