The earliest recorded use of the term 'X' is 1362 in The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman by William Langland and it is used to mean a small misshapen egg. It also appears in the Reeve's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer and the meaning is "a child tenderly brought up, an effeminate fellow, a milksop". By 1521 it was in use by country people as a derogatory reference for the effeminate town-dwellers. 'X' was used to describe those born within earshot of the Bow Bells in 1600, when Samuel Rowlands, in his satire The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine, referred to 'a Bowe-bell 'X'. Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue derives the term from the following story:
"A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, Lord! how that horse laughs! A by-stander telling him that noise was called Neighing, the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to shew he had not forgot what was told him, cried out, Do you hear how the Cock Neighs?"
'X'?
'X'-Cockney
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