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Cockney

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒk.ni/

The English word “Cockney” has 5 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. From the East End of London, or London generally.
  2. Of or relating to people from this area or their speech style.

noun

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

proper noun

  1. The dialect or accent of such Londoners.

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…

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