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cooney ((1))
[< Esk. kuni(a) wife < Danish Kone]
Arctic
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Spelling variants:kuni
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
1n.
a woman, especially a wife.
Quotations
1850
I like this species of madness, especially when the pretty Koonahs made me jump about with them.
1860
Tookoolito informed me to-day that the words pickaninny, for infant; cooney, for wife; pussy, for seal; Husky, for Innuit; smoketute, for pipe, and many other words, are not Esquimaux, though in use among her people.
1910
[The presence of a few Scandinavian words, for example, kunia, "wife," in the jargon of the Point Barrow Eskimo and whites, is due to Danish rather than to Norse influence.]
1938
They told me there was even a square dance, the numbers called by John L. Sullivan [an Eskimo]. When it came to "Ladies in the center," John L. called out "Bunch your coonies." "Coonies" I found out was whaler-Eskimo for ladies.
1961
"It can't be," murmured the old lady, who had never known a Company trader without a beard and a bald head. "Whatever will the kunis think of them curly locks!"
2n.
a caribou doe.
Quotations
1882
He had shot two deer [caribou], a "cooney" and an "isaacer"--that is, a doe and a buck--and he had their warm, bloody skins on his back.