Cockney

Meaning

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.
4. A Londoner born within earshot of the city's Bow Bells, or (now generically) any working-class Londoner.
5. The dialect or accent of such Londoners.
6. A native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London.
7. An effeminate person; a spoilt child.
8. Alternative form of Cockney.

Etymology / origin

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”).

Related words

Sources

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