Pub Quiz thread

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The word has been used to describe different things at different points in time. In addition to the uses mentioned previously Chaucer used it to describe ''an effeminate fellow'', or a ''milksop''. Progressively the word has come to be far more precisely used, but still can have different meanings to different people.
 
Ah, Chaucer...that would be cockney then, I think.
All yours Theo. The first recorded use of the word was in William Langland's 'Piers Plowman' - a ''small misshapen egg'' from middle English coken+ey (cock's egg). At the same time the mythical land of luxury 'Cockaigne' came under various spellings, including Cockayne, Cocknay and Cockney and was associated by landsmen with London. In later times it became a synonym for all town dwellers, but was, increasingly associated only with London, and, much later, only with the working class of that City. It has to be said that if we refer to Millwall fans or the Hammers today as ''small misshapen eggs'' it could well be misunderstood :biggrin:
Take it away.