Link Centre Dictionary

cony

UK/ˈkəʊ.ni/ US/ˈkoʊ.ni/ uncommon obsolete uk

noun

1.

any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes

Synonyms
2.

small short-eared burrowing mammal of rocky uplands of Asia and western North America

Synonyms
3.

any of various burrowing animals of the family Leporidae having long ears and short tails; some domesticated and raised for pets or food

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English cony, back formation from conies (plural), from Anglo-Norman conis, the plural of connil (“rabbit”), from Latin cunīculus, of unknown origin. Cognate to Catalan conill, Dutch konijn, German Kaninchen, Spanish conejo, and Portuguese coelho. The original pronunciation was /ˈkʌni/ (for the spelling, compare honey and money), but the similarity to cunt (and particularly homophony with cunny) led through taboo avoidance both to the word's displacement in the main by rabbit and bunny and to the spelling-pronunciation /ˈkəʊni/ becoming standard.

Phrases

  • butter the cony
  • Coney Island
  • cony wool

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.