Note E460 — 92.

A Cockney, the derivation of which word has been much disputed, appears to me clearly to come from the verb to cocker, to cock, by contraction, as in this passage. A cockney, therefore, is one who has been brought up effeminately, and spoilt by indulgence, whether a native of the city or of the country.—M.

"The original meaning of cockney is a child too tenderly or delicately nurtured, one kept in the house and not hardened by out-of-doors life; hence applied to citizens, as opposed to the hardier inhabitants of the country, and in modern times confined to the inhabitants of London. The Promptorium Parvulorum, and the authorities cited in Mr. Way's note, give 'Coknay, carifotus, delicius, mammotrophus'; 'To bring up like a cocknaye, mignoter.' 'Delicias facere, to play the cockney.' Cf. 'Puer in deliciis matris nutritus, Anglice, a cokenay.'—Halliwell. 'Cockney, niais, mignot.'—Sherwood. The Fr. coqueliner, to dandle, cocker, fedle, pamper, make a wanton of a child, leads us in the right direction."—Wedgwood, Etymol. Dict. "A cockney, a childe tenderly brought up; a dearling. Cockering, mollis ilia educatio quam indulgentiam vocamus."—Baret's Alvearie, 1580.