pickney

See also: Pickney

English

Etymology

From pickaninny.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

pickney (plural pickneys)

1. (Caribbean, Jamaica, Belize, MLE, MTE, informal) A child.
   • 2014, Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings, Oneworld Publications (2015), page 13:

     And he tell my father about country and where he can go and he can take him pickney with him and when he say pickney I shake but nobody know that me under the cover.

Jamaican Creole

Alternative forms

• pickeney, pikni, pikny

Etymology

Derived from English pickaninny. Compare Bajan pickney, Bislama pikinini, Pijin pikinini, and Tok Pisin pikinini.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪknɪ/
• (when stressed) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪkɪnɪ/
• Hyphenation: pick‧ney

Noun

pickney (plural pickney dem, quantified pickney) (Cassidy/JLU orthography spelling pikni)

1. child

   A: O much pickney yuh gat? B: Mi av a yute an two daughter.

   A: How many children do you have? B: I have a son and two daughters.

   • 2020, Martha Warren Beckwith, compiler, Jamaica Anansi Stories, →ISBN:

     “An' he have a bone-hole; when he ate de meat, t'row it into de hole. An' Anansi tak him wife an' t'ree pickney an' he say de five gwine to de house an' get into de pot eat de meat. […] ”

     He had a hole for his bones. When he ate his meat, he threw the bone into the hole. Anansi gathered his wife, and their three children and he told them that the five of them were going to enter the house to eat from that pot of meat […]