Coney (Re: sea cunny)

[Benjamin Barrett]

I suspect Tolkien's use of "coney" when Frodo and Sam are in Ithilien ensured its survival, particularly for fantasy use.

Searching on things like

"roasted coney" -"coney Island"
"baked coney" -"coney island"

yields a modern few hits on GB--I searched only for books from 2005 on.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home

On Jul 28, 2014, at 5:44 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> Much less ribald than it would appear.  So while "coney" /'k^ni/ =3D =
> 'rabbit' was taboo-avoided into non-existence when it wasn't tortured =
> beyond recognition in "Coney Island" (and Fr. "connil" suffered an =
> identical fate for essentially the same reason), "sea cunny" has =
> somehow, as you note, thrived (or perhaps thriven) as an every-day =
> expression.  Preserved by the saltiness, no doubt. =20
> 
> LH
> 
> On Jul 28, 2014, at 5:35 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> 
>> Here's an antedating by nearly a decade of a word we all use just =
> about
>> every day.  And a couple of post-datings thrown in.
>> =20
>> OED:  sea-conny, n.  Forms:  Also seacunny, sea-cunny, seconny, =
> seacony,
>> sea-connie, secunnie.
>> =20
>> A steersman or quartermaster in a ship manned by lascars.
>> 1801   *Asiatic Ann. Reg. 1800: Chron.* 21/1   A Frenchman..concerted =
> a
>> plan with a Spaniard and four of the seacunnies, for murdering the =
> officers
>> and seizing the ship.
>> 1801   in A. Duncan *Marin. Chron.* (1804) II. 355   Leaving Captain
>> Porter, who, with six Manilla seconnies, remained on board the wreck.
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>>    Bombay Gazette, Feb. 2.  Mallawans.
>> =20
>>    ***  [pirates seize a ship]  Happy it would have been, had the
>> business rested here; in the course of their plundering, some of them
>> attempted to strip one of the Seacunnys, who not relishing such a
>> procedure, made resistance and knocked one of them down. . . .
>> =20
>>    Daily Advertiser (New York City), September 7, 1793, p. 2, col. 3
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>>    =46rom a Calcutta Paper of December 15.  [report of a mutiny]  =
> [The
>> captain] was then between the wheel and the cuddy door, when the sea =
> cunny,
>> who suffered on Saturday, instantly plunged a crease into his heart. . =
> . --
>> he had wounded one of the sea cunnies, but being pent under the poop, =
> he
>> had not sufficient room to wield his sword in his defence.
>> =20
>>    Morning Chronicle (New York City), June 11, 1806, p. 2, col. 5
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>>    Pulo-Penang, April 3, 1819.
>> =20
>>    Extract of a letter, dated Coast of Pedier, 15th March, 1819.
>> =20
>>    "I am now enabled to give you a circumstantial account of the =
> Massacre
>> of Capt. Onetta, his Wife, and the Officers of the *Wilhelmina*: it =
> appears
>> that the subject was proposed by a Seacunny of the name of Jem, to the
>> Syrang, who, together with the Crew, immediately entered into his =
> views o
>> hearing there was money on board. . . .
>> =20
>>    Carolina Sentinel (Newbern, S. C.), October 9, 1819, p. 1, col. 3
>> =20
>> =20
>> GAT
>> =20
>> =20
>> --=20
>> George A. Thompson
>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>> =20

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