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Show A Cockuey. Bullokar, the lexicographer who gave the famous definition for "crocodile tears," was outdone by Minshen, another an-other dictionary maker of London, who, in 1617, issued the work which gave the following amusing account of the origin of the word "cockney:" "A cockney, or cockny, applied only to one born within the sound of the Bow bells that is, within the city of London, whiche terme came first ont of the following tale: "A citizen's sonne riding with his father fath-er out of London into the country, and being a novice, and merely ignorant of how come and catel do increase, asked, when he heard a horse neigh, what the horse dide. His father answered, the horse dothe neigh; riding further, he heard a cock crow, and said, dothe the cock neigh too? And, therefore, Cockney, or Coekneigh, by inversion thus: Incoctns, i. e., raw or unripe in conntrey-mens affaires. af-faires. St. Lonis Republic. |