cockney
noun /ˈkɒkni/
/ˈkɑːkni/
- [countable] a person from the East End of London
- [uncountable] the way of speaking that is typical of cockneys
- a cockney accent
CultureA true cockney was said to be somebody born within the sound of Bow Bells, but the word is often used of any Londoner who speaks with a local accent.
Word Originlate Middle English (denoting a pampered child): origin uncertain; it is apparently not the same word as Middle English cokeney ‘cock's egg’, denoting a small misshapen egg (probably from cock + obsolete ey ‘egg’). A later sense was ‘a town-dweller regarded as affected or puny’, from which the current sense arose in the early 17th cent.