cockney

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The first recorded use of the word cockney was in 1521 to suggest an urban fool, a man who believed in an egg laid by a cockerel.

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A native of the East End of London.
  2. noun The dialect or accent of the natives of the East End of London.
  3. adjective Of or relating to cockneys or their dialect.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • His English is very cockney, and he got so mixed up with “heart” and “art” that I did not know half the time whether he was talking of the collection of the Louvre Gallery or of his lady victims. —  In the Courts of Memory 1858-1875
  • Forgive me, but 'cockney-ier than thou' is not a game worth playing. —  Telegraph Blogs
  • The first recorded use of the word cockney was in 1521 to suggest an urban fool, a man who believed in an egg laid by a cockerel. —  Telegraph Blogs
  • Apparantly my "cockney" accent gets stronger when I go home or talk to people from home, glad to know someone finds it attractive! —  AfterEllen.com - Because visibility matters
  • This person mustn't be a cockney (like Mr Ashley), he mustn't have a giggle about Newcastle women (that was Freddy Shepherd), but he should be prepared for endless abuse, and ready to flush away squillions of pounds to indulge the "Toon army".
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This word has been looked up 161 times.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English cokenei, cock's egg, pampered child, city dweller : coken, cock (possibly blend of cok; see cock1, and chiken, chicken; see chicken) + ei, egg (from Old English ǣg; see awi- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also cockneye, cocknaye, cocknaie; from Middle English cockney, cocknaye, cokeney, cokenay, coknay (see definitions). The origin has been much disputed, the form and sense of the word having become entangled with those of other words related only remotely or not at all, namely: (1) cock, as in the desperate etymology (“Doth the cock neigh, too?”) mentioned by Minsheu; (2) cocket, cockish, cocky, etc., with allusion to pertness or conceit; (3) Cockaigne, Cockayne, an imaginary country of idleness and luxury, supposed (erroneously) to be related, whence its second meaning, ‘cockneydom’; (4) cocker, cock, and coax, v., pamper, fondle, akin in sense but apparently not in origin. The only solution of cockney phonetically satisfactory is historically unsupported, namely, from Old French *coquiné (Middle Latin *coquinatus), taken in some such sense as ‘a vagabond who hangs around the kitchen,’ or ‘a child brought up in the kitchen,’ or ‘a child fed in the kitchen, a pampered child.’ The word would then be closely connected with Old French coquiner, beg (later coquin (Middle Latin coquinus, Middle English cokin), a beggar, a rogue, F. a rogue, a rascal, coquinerie, beggary, F. roguery, coquineau, a scoundrel), from Latin coquinare, serve in a kitchen, cook (hence the possible later sense of ‘hang about a kitchen’), from coquina, a kitchen (later ult. English kitchen), from coquus, a cook, later ult. English cook: see cook and kitchen.
  2. from cockney, n.
 

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/ˈkɑkni/
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