Meaning

noun a native of the east end of London

noun the nonstandard dialect of natives of the east end of London

adjective characteristic of Cockneys or their dialect

originFirst attested in Samuel Rowland's 1600 The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine as "a Bowe-bell Cockney", from Middle English cokenay (“a spoiled child; a milksop, an effeminate man”), used in the 16th c. by English country folk as a term of disparagement for city dwellers, of uncertain etymology. Possibly from Middle English cokeney (“a small, misshapen egg”), from coken…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0