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A Cockney, in the loosest sense of the word, is a working-class inhabitant of the East End of London. According to one old tradition, the definition is limited to those born within earshot (generally taken to be three miles) of the Bow bells, i.e. the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. This area included the City, Bethnal Green, Stepney, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Finsbury, and Hackney.
Origins of the word
The term was in use in this sense as early as 1600, when Samuel Rowlands in his satire The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine, referred to 'a Bow-bell Cockney'. John Minsheu (or Minshew) was the first lexicographer to define the word in this sense, in his Ductor in Linguas (1617), where he referred to 'A cockney or cockny, applied only to one born within the sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London'. However, the etymologies he gave (from 'cock' and 'neigh', or from Latin incoctus, raw) were just guesses, and the OED later authoritatively explained the term as originating from cock and egg, meaning first a misshapen egg (1362), then a person ignorant of country ways (1521), then the senses mentioned above.
The church of St Mary-le-Bow was destroyed in the Great Fire of London and rebuilt by Christopher Wren. After the bells were destroyed again in 1941 in the Blitz of World War II, and before the bells were replaced in 1961, there was a period when no 'Bow-bell' Cockneys could be born.
Cockney culture
See also:
Cockney speech
Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect, and frequently use Cockney rhyming slang. A fake Cockney accent, as used by some actors, is sometimes called 'Mockney'.
Typical features of Cockney speech include:
- dropped H, as in not 'arf (not half)
- use of ain't instead of isn't or am not
- pronunciation of TH as F, as in faas'nd for thousand
- long A sound used instead of OW sound, as in the thousand example
Drama and fiction
Famous Cockneys
- Alfie Bass (actor, born in Bethnal Green)
- David Beckham (footballer, born in Leytonstone)
- Nigel Benn (boxer, born in Ilford)
- David Bowie (singer, born in Stepney Green)
- Billy Bragg (singer, born in Barking)
- Bernard Bresslaw (actor, born in Stepney)
- George Carey (archbishop, born in Bow)
- Jack Cohen (founder of Tesco supermarket chain, born in Whitechapel)
- Windsor Davies (actor, born in Canning Town)
- Alfred Hitchcock (film director, born in Leytonstone)
- Stanley Holloway (actor, born in Manor Park)
- Angela Lansbury (actress, born in Poplar)
- Vera Lynn (singer, born in East Ham)
- Warren Mitchell (actor, born in West Ham)
- Dudley Moore (actor, born in Dagenham, Essex)
- William Morris (craftsman, born in Walthamstow)
- Alf Ramsey (football manager, born in Dagenham, Essex)
- Maggie Smith (actress, born in Ilford, Essex)
- Terence Stamp (actor, born in Stepney)
- Jack Warner (actor, born in Bow)
- Barbara Windsor (actress, born in Shoreditch)
Some London-born performers who are not Cockneys include Michael Caine, Max Bygraves, Arthur Mullard and Tommy Steele. Many other actors, born outside London, are famous for Cockney roles.
Famous Mockney performances
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