The Saturday briefing

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

- by CAROLINE FORD

Is there anything you're yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...

To be called a Cockney, I was told that a person had to be born within the sound of Bow Bells in London. How did this custom start and where did the word Cockney come from?

Phillip Baskerville, Horsham, USA

The word has resisted any simple etymology but it seems Cockney evolved from a medieval insult into a badge of pride.

The term is associated with the working-class of London’s East End and a distinctive dialect, of which Cockney rhyming slang is a feature. This is said to have evolved from Victorian street sellers or costermongers.

The traditional definition of being a Cockney is someone born within earshot of “Bow Bells” - the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, in the City of London.

The word “cokeneye” was first recorded in 1362 by William Langford in his narrative poem Piers Plowman. It referred to a “cock’s egg” i.e. a misshapen, yolkless egg sometimes laid by a young hen that is defective. It was used as an insult to describe someone as useless.

A few decades later, an alternative use for a “cockered child” - one that is pampered and indulged - was referenced by Chaucer for someone who is delicate and squeamish.