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Cockney

adj
/ˈkɒk.ni/UK

Etymology

First attested in Samuel Rowland's 1600 The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine as "a Bowe-bell Cockney", from Middle English cokenay (“a spoiled child; a milksop, an effeminate man”), used in the 16th c. by English country folk as a term of disparagement for city dwellers, of uncertain etymology. Possibly from Middle English cokeney (“a small, misshapen egg”), from coken (“cocks'(rooster’s)”) + ey (“egg”) or from Cockney and Cocknay, variants of Cockaigne, a mythical land of luxury (first attested in 1305) eventually used as a humorous epithet of London. Compare cocker (“to spoil a child”).

  1. derived from cokeney
  2. inherited from cokenay

Definitions

  1. From the East End of London, or London generally.

  2. Of or relating to people from this area or their speech style.

  3. Any Londoner.

    • COCKNEY, a native of London. An ancient nickname implying effeminacy, used by the oldest English writers, and derived from the imaginary fool's paradise, or lubberland, Cockaygne.
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. A Londoner born within earshot of the city's Bow Bells, or (now generically) any…

      A Londoner born within earshot of the city's Bow Bells, or (now generically) any working-class Londoner.

      • Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow Bell, are in reproach called Cockneys.
      • A Cockney or Cocksie, applied only to one born within the sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London.
      • “Charming place, ma’am,” said he, bowing to the widow; “noble prospect—delightful to us Cocknies, who seldom see anything but Pall Mall.”

    2. The dialect or accent of such Londoners.

    3. A native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London.

      • A cockney in a rural village was stared at as much as if he had entered a kraal of Hottentots.

    4. An effeminate person

      An effeminate person; a spoilt child.

      • A young heir, or cockney, that is his mother's darling[…]
      • This great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney.

    5. Alternative form of Cockney.

The neighborhood

Derived

cockneycality, cockneyess, cockneyfication, cockneyfy, cockneyize, Irish cockney, Jockney

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for Cockney. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA