coney
pronunciation
How to pronounce coney in British English:
UK ['kəʊnɪ]
How to pronounce coney in American English:
US ['koʊnɪ]
-
- Noun:
- black-spotted usually dusky-colored fish with reddish fins
- any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes
- small short-eared burrowing mammal of rocky uplands of Asia and western North America
- any of various burrowing animals of the family Leporidae having long ears and short tails; some domesticated and raised for pets or food
Word Origin
- coney (n.)
- c. 1200, from Anglo-French conis, plural of conil "long-eared rabbit" (Lepus cunicula) from Latin cuniculus (source of Spanish conejo, Portuguese coelho, Italian coniglio), the small, Spanish variant of the Italian hare (Latin lepus), the word perhaps from Iberian Celtic (classical writers say it is Spanish). Rabbit arose 14c. to mean the young of the species, but gradually pushed out the older word 19c., after British slang picked up coney as a punning synonym for cunny "cunt" (compare connyfogle "to deceive in order to win a woman's sexual favors"). The word was in the King James Bible [Prov. xxx:26, etc.], however, so it couldn't be entirely dropped, and the solution was to change the pronunciation of the original short vowel (rhyming with honey, money) to rhyme with boney. In the Old Testament, the word translates Hebrew shaphan "rock-badger." Rabbits not being native to northern Europe, there was no Germanic or Celtic word for them.
Example
- 1. What 's yon place in america , coney island ?
- 2. Is this the girl they found at coney island yesterday ?
- 3. Where can I buy a ticket for coney island ?
- 4. Those who be coney caught under the doll soldier and a come in first accept the " brainwashed " .
- 5. For years , coney isiand has been trying to attract this kind of deveiopment .