Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. Native-American.

1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods I 92: Red-skins! you half-niggers! you ’coon whelps! you snakes!
1843		L.H. Medina Nick of the Woods III i: Here you tarnal, temporal, long-legged, tater-headed, pumpkin-eating red niggers! you coon whelps!

2. (US) sly, cunning; thus coonfully adv., cunningly.

1852		Calif. Sun Dispatch 18 Jan. 1/5: I know it’s a humbug afore I commence: cause that ere Barnum lays the hose of the whole concern [...] May be he aint coon! [DA].
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Politics’ Sandburrs 93: I’m rattled, wit’ all d’ glasses an’ dishes an’ d’ lights overhead. But I’m cooney all d’ same.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 148: Offering his arm to the lovely and coonful Mignon. [Ibid.] 204: Sometimes [...] that Cleopatra’s got a real coony look, Duke. [Ibid.] 336: Vivienne coonfully swiped the pudding which he had scorned.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 56: Joe was slow but Cooney.
1947		Time 27 Jan. 20/2: Ezell ran a coony eye over the new Georgia constitution [DA].
1952		K.C. Lamott Stockade 63: He’s a coony old bastard.

3. pertaining to a black individual or black culture.

1870		R.W. Emerson Society and Solitude 219: I knew a scholar [...] who said that he liked, in a bar-room, to tell a few coon stories.
1877		Chicago Street Gazette 20 Oct. 1/4: [headline] Prospect of a Prize Fight Between Two Noted Coon Sluggers.
1899		Irving Jones ‘I Want a Filipino Man’ 🎵 This black man doesn’t talk the real coon rag-time.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 277: You’d be about as prominent at the Maxixe in that outfit [...] as a one-legged albino at a coon cakewalk.
1916		‘Sapper’ ‘The Motor Gun’ in Men, Women & Guns 24: [I]n the corner of that delectable resort, farthest away from the coon band, sat Dickie O'Rourke.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 79: A coon waiter who said thank you for a four-bit tip.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 15: He’s layin’ up in some coon joint.
1943		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 71: She told a coon chauffeur / That he was her gopher— / And, say, did he go for her hole!
1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 31: Blossom Seeley, another ‘red hot mamma’ was coon-shouting ‘Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey’.
1958		T. Capote Breakfast at Tiffany’s 76: What could be prettier than a quite coony baby with bright green beautiful eyes.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 145: Untie me, you Coon Bastard.
1975		S. Roberts ‘A Small Change’ Outside Life’s Feast 66: Glad I sold those safari suits to the coon boy.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 301: Did you know that coon queen’s taking it from Dr. Starkowitz.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 153: Kevin whatshisname, the coon cunt, was a real humdinger, though as a rule he hated blacks.
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] [of a Native Aus.] Bruce’s not a coon name [...] You look like you got a bit of coon in you.
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 221: Country music became the last bastion of the coon song.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘By the time my lawyer’s done with you [...] there won’t be enough of your coon ass to hang from a goddamn tree’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 63: His coon maroon Merc’s parked out back.