Cocky vs Precocious - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between cocky and precocious

is that cocky is overly confident, arrogant and boastful while precocious is characterized by exceptionally early development or maturity.

As a noun cocky

is abbreviation of cockatoo; used when pretending to talk to such a bird, as in "hello cocky".

cocky

English

Etymology 1

From .

Noun

(cockies)

Abbreviation of cockatoo; used when pretending to talk to such a bird, as in "hello cocky" .

* 2005 August 5, The World Today: Town seeks environmental accreditation , radio programme, transcript,

Visit the local store at Coles Bay and you?re greeted by a talking cocky called Jim.

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A cockatoo farmer.

* 1907 , , Human Toll , Gutenberg Australia eBook #0607531,

‘We camped one evening at Narrangidgery Creek, close b? a cocky ?s ?umstead.’

* 1946 , , My Career Goes Bung , Gutenberg Australia eBook #0900281,

Burrawong was one of the larger stations in which much of the good land of the district was locked. The cockies usually had to follow the main road, but since the drought the owners had opened one of their permanent water-holes so that the poorer settlers could cart water to their homesteads.

* 2001 November 19, Shelley Horton, Media Dimensions: Episode 15 , TV programme, transcript,

And stories in the bush may not seem relevant in the big smoke, but try telling that to a cocky .

* 2010 , Jackie French, A Waltz for Matilda , unnumbered page,

Now — well, Moura was scarcely Drinkwater, but it was more than just a cocky farm too.

(New Zealand, informal) A sheep farmer.

Usage notes

* (farmer) In both Australia and New Zealand, forms such as sheep cocky'' (sheep farmer) and ''cow cocky'' (dairy farmer) exist. In New Zealand, ''cocky'' is often synonymous with ''sheep cocky , due to the relative importance of the industry.

Synonyms

* (bird) birdie * (farmer) crofter; see also farmer

Derived terms

(farmer) boss cocky, cocky's joy

Etymology 2

From .

Adjective

(er)

Overly confident, arrogant and boastful.

* 1881 November 29, Sir Ernest Mason Satow, Letter to William George Aston'', 2008, Sir Ernest Mason Satow, Ian Ruxton (editor), ''Sir Ernest Satow's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist from 1870 to 1918 , page 66,

Hodges has made a great fool of himself, by getting gradually cockier' and ' cockier .

* 2008 , Gerard Thomas, Nightwarrior Chronicles: All Girls? Team , page 85,

The confidence that was temporarily humbled now returned with a cockier attitude.

* 2011 , Melanie Harvey, Indispensable Friendship & Death Collide , page 204,

You smiling your oh-so-perfect smile and me with the biggest, cockiest' grin on my face you can ever imagine. I would have been the ' cockiest man alive that night knowing you were going home with me.

Synonyms

* See also

precocious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Characterized by exceptionally early development or maturity.

* {{quote-news, year=2014

, date=November 14 , author=Stephen Halliday , title=Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero , work=The Scotsman citation , page= , passage=Scotland’s most encouraging early source of an attacking threat was Andrew Robertson as the precocious left-back charged forward to good effect on a couple of occasions. }}

Both groups, also, have already evolved precocious (intracapsular) spore germination.

Exhibiting advanced skills at an abnormally early age.

The precocious child began reading the newspaper at age four.

Quotations

* 1964 , , “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, Mary Poppins , Walt Disney *: Mary: Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious / If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious

Synonyms

* tranty

Antonyms

* altricious * serotinous

External links

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