"coony" adj. = sly, cunning, 1910

[DanG]

Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: "coony" adj. = sly, cunning, 1910
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>HDAS has _coony_, "sly," from 1899.
>
>JL
>
>
>On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 8:21 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: "coony" adj. = sly, cunning, 1910
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Alison, apology accepted.  But as to bald like a raccoon, I have that
>> on the best authority -- the OED's definition of "coony a.", under
>> "coon, n."  ... Oops, perhaps they're wrong -- they've spelt it "racoon"!
>>  :-)
>>
>> Joel
>>
>> At 2/3/2010 07:02 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
>> >>~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> >>' "bald" like a raccoon??'  Coons ain't bald.  Far from it.  'Possums
>> >>look bald, but aren't.   Perhaps the meaning of "coony" is really
>> >>cunning, which would be more appropriate altogether.
>> >>AM
>> >~~~~~~~~~~
>> >Ooops.  Somehow I missed para 2 in Joel's post.  I'm sorting through a
>> >mountain of backlogged mail.  I was away from my desk for ten days
>> >getting a bad hip replaced & being whipped into a semblance of normal
>> >functioning by a crew of therapists.  Medicare is wonderful.  (Only it
>> >didn't get me to read my mail more carefully.)
>> >AM
>>
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