COCKERNONNIE

A 'Cockernonnie' or 'cockernonie' etc was an old Scottish women’s hairstyle. It was a gathering up of the hair, after a fashion similar to the modern ''chignon'', and sometimes called a "cock-up". Mr. Kirkton of Edinburgh, preaching against "cock-ups" – of which ''chignons'' were the representative in the mid-19th century – said:
:"I have spent all this year preaching against the vanity of women, yet I see my own daughter in the kirk even now, with as high a 'cock-up' as any of you all."
Modern folk etymology has suggested that "cock-up" refers to a male erection, but this is untrue.
John Jamieson was of the opinion that "cockernonnie" signified a snood, or gathering of the hair in a band or fillet. Scott mentions it a couple of times in his novels.
:"But I doubt the daughter’s a silly thing: an unco cockernony she had busked up on her head at the kirk last Sunday." (''Old Mortality'' (1816)
And
:"My gude name! If ony body touched my gude name I would fash neither council nor commissary. I would be down upon them like a sea-falcon amang a wheen wild geese, and the best of them that dared to say onything o’ Meg Dods, but what was honest and civil, I would soon see if her cockenonie was made o’ her ain hair or other folks." (''St. Ronan's Well'' 1824)

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Reference

Reference

★ MacKay, Charles – ''A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch'' (1888)