Etymologically
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cockney

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkɒk.ni/ (UK)[1]

Etymology

It comes from Middle English cokeney, cokenei, literally “cock's egg”,[2][3][4][5][6] from coken, genitive plural of cok “cock”,[5][6] and ey “egg”,[2][5][6] from Old English ǣg (“egg”).[2][5][3] Anatoly Liberman, quoted by Etymonline, argues instead that cokeney “milksop” is a reshaping of Old French acoquiné “spoiled”.[4] Barnhart suggests a possible popular link with Cockaigne, the imaginary land of luxury.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pampered child, a mother's darling (about 1386).[7] The literal “cock's egg” is recorded from the mid-14th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

A “cock's egg” was a small or misshapen egg, the runt of a clutch.[4][6] The word came to mean a spoiled child or a milksop,[7][4] and by 1521 it was a scornful name for a townsman, soft compared to hardy country people.[7][3][4] It then narrowed to a Londoner, especially one born within the sound of Bow Bells (about 1600),[3][4][6] and to the East End and its accent.[2][5]

Timeline

  • c1386 – a pampered child.[7]
  • 1521 – a townsman, as a type of softness.[7][3]
  • 1583 – verb, to pamper.[7]
  • 1600 – a Londoner; the London dialect.[3][4]
  • 1605 – a squeamish or affected woman (obsolete).[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A native of the East End of London, traditionally one born within the sound of Bow Bells.
  2. The dialect or accent of such Londoners.
  3. (obsolete) A spoiled child, or a squeamish person.

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to cockneys or their dialect.

Word family

  • cockneyish
  • cockneyism
  • cockneyishly
  • cockneyfy
  • cock
  • egg
  • Cockaigne

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press