cony

Meanings

1. A rabbit, especially the European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus (formerly known as Lepus cuniculus).
2. Rabbit fur.
3. Locally for other rabbit-like or hyrax-like animals, such as the Cape hyrax (das, dassie) or the pika (Ochotona princeps, formerly Lagomys princeps).
4. Used in the Old Testament as a translation of Hebrew שָׁפָן (shafán), thought to be the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis, syn. Hyrax syriacus).
5. A simpleton; one who may be taken in by a cony-catcher.
6. An edible West Indian fish, a grouper given in different sources as: Epinephelus apua, the hind of Bermuda; nigger-fish, Epinephelus punctatus; Cephalopholis fulva.
7. Any of certain members of family Epinephelidae of Atlantic groupers, such as mutton hamlets, graysby, Cuban coneys, and rooster hinds.
8. A burbot.
9. A woman; a sweetheart.

1. Initialism of City of New York.

1. Alternative letter-case form of CONY

Etymology

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.

Translations