Editing Cockney (section)

===Etymology of ''Cockney''===
The earliest recorded use of the term is 1362 in passus VI of [[William Langland]]'s ''[[Piers Plowman]]'', where it is used to mean "a small, misshapen [[Egg as food|egg]]", from [[Middle English]] ''coken'' + ''ey'' ("a [[rooster|cock]]'s egg").<ref name="oxoed">{{Cite book|title=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1989 |edition=Second |url=http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50042885?query_type=word&queryword=cockney&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&search_id=GFml-T85glP-13801&hilite=50042885 |access-date=24 March 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622035837/http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50042885?query_type=word&queryword=cockney&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&search_id=GFml-T85glP-13801&hilite=50042885 |archive-date=22 June 2011}}</ref> Concurrently, the [[List of mythological places|mythical land]] of luxury [[Cockaigne]] ([[Attested language|attested]] from 1305) appeared under a variety of spellings, including ''Cockayne'', ''Cocknay'', and ''Cockney'', and became humorously associated with the [[Kingdom of England|English]] capital [[London]].<ref name="hott">{{Cite book|last=Hotten|first=John Camden|title=A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words|page=22|chapter=Cockney|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zhk9h-w1negC&q=Dictionary+of+Modern+Slang,+Cant+and+Vulgar+Words|year=1859|title-link=A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words|access-date=25 October 2020|archive-date=14 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814210734/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zhk9h-w1negC&q=Dictionary+of+Modern+Slang,+Cant+and+Vulgar+Words|url-status=live}} '''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 lubber-land, ''Cockaygne''.</ref>{{Refn|Note, however, that the earliest attestation of this particular usage provided by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from 1824 and consists of a tongue-in-cheek allusion to an existing notion of "Cockneydom".<ref name="oedcockaigne">{{Cite book|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|title=Oxford English Dictionary|year=2009 |edition=Second}}</ref>}}

The current meaning of ''Cockney'' comes from its use among rural Englishmen (attested in 1520) as a pejorative term for effeminate town-dwellers,{{Refn|"This cokneys and tytyllynges&nbsp;... [delicati pueri] may abide no sorrow when they come to age&nbsp;... In these great cytees as London, York, Perusy, and such&nbsp;... the children be so nicely and wantonly brought up&nbsp;... that commonly they can little good.<ref>Whittington, Robert. ''Vulgaria''. 1520.</ref>}}<ref name="oxoed" /> from an earlier general sense (encountered in "[[The Reeve's Tale]]" of [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'' {{Circa|lk=no|1386}}) of a "cokenay" as "a child tenderly brought up" and, by extension, "an effeminate fellow" or "a {{Linktext|milksop}}".<ref name="cumberledge">{{Cite book|last=Cumberledge|first=Geoffrey|title=The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer|editor=F. N. Robinson|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=70 & 1063}}</ref> This may have developed from the sources above or separately, alongside such terms as "{{Linktext|cock}}" and "{{Linktext|cocker}}" which both have the sense of "to make a {{Linktext|nestle-cock}}&nbsp;... or the darling of", "to indulge or pamper".{{Refn|"...&nbsp;I shall explain myself more particularly; only laying down this as a general and certain observation for the women to consider, ''viz''. that most children's constitutions are spoiled, or at least harmed, by ''cockering'' and ''tenderness''."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Locke|first=John|title=Some thoughts concerning education | year=1695|edition=Third|page=7}}</ref>}}<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st ed. "cocker, ''v''.<sup>1</sup>" & "cock, ''v''.<sup>6</sup>". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1891</ref> By 1600, this meaning of ''Cockney'' was being particularly associated with the [[Bow Bells]] area.<ref name=phrase>{{Cite web |url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/72100.html |title=Born within the sound of Bow Bells |publisher=Phrases.org.uk |access-date=18 January 2013 |archive-date=16 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116165838/http://phrases.org.uk/meanings/72100.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[[Rowlands, Samuel]]. ''The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine''. 1600.</ref> In 1617, the travel writer [[Fynes Moryson]] stated in his ''Itinerary'' that "Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow Bells, are in [[wikt:reproach|reproach]] called Cockneys."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://london.lovesguide.com/articles/bow_bells.htm |title=Bow Bells |publisher=London.lovesguide.com |access-date=1 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712144308/http://london.lovesguide.com/articles/bow_bells.htm |archive-date=12 July 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The same year, [[John Minsheu]] included the term in this newly restricted sense in his dictionary ''Ductor in Linguas''.{{Refn|"A Cockney or a Cocksie, applied only to one born within the sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London". Note, however, that his proffered [[etymology]]&nbsp;— from either "cock" and "neigh" or from the [[Latin]] ''{{Linktext|incoctus}}''&nbsp;— were both erroneous.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.london-walks.co.uk/29/cockney-bow-bells-st-mary.shtml |title=Cockney. Bow Bells. St Mary-le-Bow. St Thomas Becket. London Walks. (London Walks) |access-date=2007-08-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070816081218/https://www.london-walks.co.uk/29/cockney-bow-bells-st-mary.shtml |archive-date=16 August 2007}}</ref> The humorous [[folk etymology]] which grew up around the derivation from "cock" and "neigh" was preserved by [[Francis Grose]]'s 1785 ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5402 A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue]'': "A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, Lord! How that horse laughs! A by-stander telling him that noise was called Neighing; the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to {{Linktext|shew}} he had not forgotten what was told him, cried out, Do you hear how the Cock Neighs?"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/c/cockney.html |title=Cockney (Grose 1811 Dictionary) |publisher=Fromoldbooks.org |access-date=18 January 2013 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927184430/http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/c/cockney.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="grose">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/dcvgr10.txt|title=A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue|last=Grose|first=Francis|work=Project Gutenberg e-text|publisher=gutenberg.org|access-date=24 March 2009|archive-date=26 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080926195117/http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/dcvgr10.txt|url-status=live}}</ref>}}