No one has even a definitive spelling for Cawdrey's name {Cowdrey, Cawdry}. But then, no one agreed on the spelling of most names: they were spoken, seldom written. In fact, few had any concept of "spelling"-the idea that each word, when written, should take a particular predetermined form of letters. The word cony {rabbit} appeared variously as conny, conye, conie, connie, coni, cuny, cunny, and cunnie in a single 1591 pamphlet.
( James Gleick )
[ The Information: A History, a ]
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