es are
gathered by the simple process of raking them from the sand, and they
are usually boiled and extracted from their shells before being sent to
market. The cockle is liable to the same suspicion as the oyster of
conveying the contamination of typhoid fever where the shores are
polluted, but as it is boiled before being eaten it is probably less
dangerous. (J. T. C.)

COCKNEY, a colloquial name applied to Londoners generally, but more
properly confined to those born in London, or more strictly still to
those born within the sound of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church. The
origin of the word has been the subject of many guesses, from that in
John Minsheu's lexicon, _Ductor in linguas_ (1617), which gives the tale
of the town-bred child who, on hearing a horse neigh, asked whether a
"cock neighed" too, to the confusion of the word with the name of the
Utopia, the land of Cockaigne (q.v.). The historical examination of the
various uses of "Cockney," by Sir James Murray (see _Academy_, 10th of
May 1890, and the _New English Dictionary_, s.v.) clearly shows the true
derivation. The earliest form of the word is _cokenay_ or _cokeney_,
i.e. the _ey_ or egg, and _coken_, genitive plural of "cock," "cocks'
eggs" being the name given to the small and malformed eggs sometimes
laid by young hens, known in German as _Hahneneier_. An early quotation,
in Langland's _Piers Plowman_, A. vii. 272, gives the combination of
"cokeneyes" and bacon to make a "collop," or dish of eggs and bacon. The
word then applied to a child overlong nursed by its mother, hence to a
simpleton or milksop. Thus in Chaucer, _Reeve's Tale_, the word is used
with _daf_, i.e. a fool. The particular application of the name as a
term of contempt given by country folk to town-bred people, with their
dandified airs and ignorance of country ways and country objects, is
easy. Thus Robert Whittington or Whitinton (_fl._ 1520), speaks of the
"cokneys" in such "great cytees as London, York, Perusy" (Perugia),
showing the general use of the word. It was not till the beginning of
the 17th century that "cockney" appears to be confined to the
inhabitants of London.

The so-called "Cockney" accent or pronunciation has varied in type. In
the first part of the 19th century, it was chiefly characterized by the
substitution of a _v_ for a _w_, or vice versa. This has almost entirely
disappeared, and the chief consonantal variation which exists is perhaps
the change