What does coney mean?
A coney is, at root, an old English name for a rabbit, borrowed through Anglo-Norman French from the Latin cuniculus, the very word that gives us "coney's" relative terms in rabbit husbandry today. In medieval and early modern England the coney was a common creature of fields, warrens, and folklore, appearing in proverbs, fables, and hunting manuals. The word took on a second life in the King James Bible of 1611, where "coney" renders the Hebrew shaphan — not a rabbit at all, but the rock hyrax, a small, furry mammal of the Middle Eastern cliffs. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, "coney" attached itself to place and food: Coney Island in Brooklyn lent its name to the chili-topped "coney dog" beloved in Michigan diners. A quirk of the word's history is its pronunciation: once rhyming with "honey," it shifted to rhyme with "pony," reportedly to avoid an indecent homophone. Today the animal sense is chiefly historical, biblical, or regional, while the culinary sense thrives in the American Midwest.
A rabbit; formerly the standard English term for the adult European rabbit, now chiefly archaic, dialectal, or literary in British English.
"The warren bristled with coneys darting between the gorse bushes."
In biblical translation, a rendering of the Hebrew shaphan, usually identified as the rock hyrax, a small cliff-dwelling mammal of the Middle East.
"Leviticus lists the coney among the animals that chew the cud but do not part the hoof."
In North American usage, short for a Coney Island hot dog: a hot dog served in a soft bun topped with a seasoned meat sauce, onions, and mustard.
"Order two coneys with everything and a side of fries."
Both spellings take a regular -s plural. Historically, "conies" appears frequently in older texts and biblical translations, while "coneys" is more common in modern American food contexts.
"The hunter counted a dozen conies grazing at the edge of the burrow."
"Coney" once rhymed with "honey" — until Victorian prudery over its risqué homophone forced the entire English-speaking world to change how it was pronounced.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of coney
"Coney" derives from Middle English "coni" or "conig," taken from Old French "connin" or "conil," which descend from Latin "cuniculus," meaning rabbit or burrow — the same Latin source behind modern rabbit-farming terms like cuniculture. It has been used in English since at least the medieval period, initially as the ordinary word for the adult European rabbit. The spelling variants "cony" and "coney" have coexisted for centuries, and the pronunciation drifted from something like "cunny" to the modern "KOHN-ee," a shift often attributed to the awkward indecent homophone the old form had acquired by the sixteenth century. The biblical "coney" translates the Hebrew shaphan, identified as the rock hyrax, a usage inherited from earlier translations such as the Geneva Bible and ultimately Jerome's Vulgate.
How coney is actually used
The spelling varies between "cony" and "coney," both accepted. In modern Britain the word is largely archaic or dialectal for the European rabbit, while the King James Bible uses "coney" for the hyrax (Hebrew shaphan), a small rock-dwelling mammal that is not actually a rodent or lagomorph. In Michigan and elsewhere in the American Midwest, "Coney Island" and "coney dog" are firmly established food terms. The odd modern pronunciation (rhyming with "pony" rather than "honey") arose partly to distance the word from an indecent homophone, making "coney" a rare case of a word whose sound changed for reasons of propriety.
Easily confused with coney
Though historically connected as spelling variants, 'cony' refers to a rabbit while 'cunny' became an obscene term for female genitalia, which is why the pronunciation shifted.
A pony is a small horse, whereas a coney is a rabbit; they rhyme but are entirely unrelated animals.