Boisterous or rowdy behavior; conduct typical of a rooster or showing cocklike characteristics.
From cock (rooster) + -ery (a suffix indicating behavior, practice, or place, as in 'gallery', 'bakery'). This term emerged in the 16th-17th centuries to describe wild or aggressive behavior attributed to roosters.
The suffix '-ery' is wonderfully productive in English—add it to almost any noun and you get a noun describing that activity or place. 'Cockery' captures the idea of rooster-like boldness and aggression, a behavior pattern so recognizable that people named an entire category of conduct after it.
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