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cockney

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Cockney¹

  • /ˈkɒk.ni/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒkni

Where it comes from

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”).

adjective cockney

  1. UK, not comparable From the East End of London, or London generally.
  2. not comparable Of or relating to people from this area or their speech style.

noun Cockneys · cockney

  1. UK, slang 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.
  2. UK 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.

proper noun cockney

  1. The dialect or accent of such Londoners.

cockney²

Where it comes from

See Cockney.

noun cockneys · Cockney

  1. 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.
  2. obsolete An effeminate person; a spoilt child. A young heir, or cockney, that is his mother's darling[…]

    Similar: nancy

Similar: pansy, sissy

adjective Cockney

  1. alternative, not comparable Alternative form of Cockney

proper noun Cockney

  1. alternative Alternative form of Cockney

Thesaurus

noun

Similar: pansy, sissy

Translations

Every language

noun a native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London

Portuguêscockney

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Cite this
MLA

"cockney." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cockney. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

cockney. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cockney

Chicago

"cockney." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cockney.

BibTeX
@misc{cockney_2026,
  title = {cockney},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cockney},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}