"coony" adj. = sly, cunning, 1910

[Joel S. Berson]

The OED has "coony" (adj) only as "bald like a raccoon", with its
only quotation
1887 Sat. Rev. 16 July 71 Hat-wearing man becomes Alopeciac, or 'coony'.

The following seems to be an instance of "coony" (adj) = sly,
cunning, from 1910.  Perhaps a variant of "canny", for which the OED
says "Also in north Eng. dial. conny."?

"In order to avoid accidents coony old Antonio had had false bottoms
put in his two valises as well as his trunk, and in the pocket of one
of them he had stowed away the baggage-check and a sight draft for
twenty-four hundred pounds."

 From Arthur Train, "The Spanish Prisoner," "Originally published in
the March, 1910, issue of THE COSMOPOLITAN
MAGAZINE."  Source:
http://www.hidden-knowledge.com/funstuff/spanishprisoner/spanishprisoner1.html,
page 2.

Joel

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