# coon

Pronunciation: say "KOON" US /kun/, UK /kuːn/

## Noun

1. A raccoon. *(colloquial, US, Canada)*
   - Simple: A raccoon, a small wild animal.
   - _The dog treed a coon down by the creek just before dawn._
   - _Coons and possums raided the garbage behind the cabin all winter._
2. A highly offensive ethnic slur for a Black person. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A very offensive and hateful word for a Black person.
4. Used, especially by Black people, of a Black person seen as pandering to white people, playing up demeaning stereotypes, or betraying other Black people.
   - Simple: An insult for a Black person seen as acting out stereotypes or letting down other Black people to please white people.
6. Short for coonass, an offensive ethnic slur for a Cajun, a person of Acadian French descent in south Louisiana. *(dialectal, Southern US)*
   - Simple: A rude, offensive word for a Cajun, a person from south Louisiana whose family came from French Acadia.

## Verb

3. To hunt raccoons. *(dialectal, Southern US)*
   - Simple: To go hunting for raccoons.
5. In African American usage, of a Black person: to act out the old stereotype of the Black fool for an audience, particularly one that includes white people.
   - Simple: Of a Black person, to act like an old, foolish stereotype to entertain people, especially white people.

## Noun

7. A sly, cunning fellow. *(dated, US)*
   - Simple: A man who is clever and a little tricky.

## Verb

8. To steal. *(dated, Southern US)*
   - Simple: To steal something.
   - _As boys they would slip out after dark to coon watermelons from a neighbor's patch._
   - _He spent his youth trading horses and now and then cooning one._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A member of one of the colorfully dressed dance troupes that perform in Cape Town during the New Year celebrations.
- (verb) To crawl or shuffle along something narrow, such as a log over a creek or a rock ledge, often straddling it.
- (verb) To fish by noodling, feeling with the hands for large fish hidden in underwater holes.

## Origin

A clipping of raccoon.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/coon (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).