A small cake. The word occurs in Scotland ab. 1730 (N.E.D.). “In the Low Country Cakes are called Cookies.”—Burt, ‘Lett. N. Scotland,’ ii. 272 (1760). It probably reached the U.S. through the Dutch Koekje.

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1803.  When dears and sweets were as plenty as cookies on a new-year’s day.—The Port Folio, iii. 14 (Phila.).

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1849.  

        Their children I will leave in lurch,
Or in each stocking put a birch:
That Christmas more shall ne’er come round,
That ought that’s good shall there be found;
The boys in empty socks shall look
In vain for toy or story book;
And to fill full the bitter cup,
In time forget to hang them up!
Ay, more; no cookie shall be baked
For them, until my wrath is slaked.
Knickerbocker Mag., xxxii. 19/1 (Jan.).    

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1850.  The child wanted a cooky. “Eat your bread and milk first,” enjoined the mother. The child reached forward, and purloined the cooky.—S. Judd, ‘Richard Edney,’ p. 246.

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1855.  It [our dinner] consists of slices of cold ham, cookies and doughnuts.—Sara Robinson, ‘Kansas,’ p. 38 (1857).

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1856.  I ’ll bet a cookey he called for me.—Whitcher, ‘The Widow Bedott Papers,’ No. 6.

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1871.  He had a word for the children, and maybe an apple or a cookey in his pocket for ’em.—Mrs. Stowe, ‘Laughin’ in Meetin’.’

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1878.  I gin the girl some o’ them cookies you sent over, she was hungry, poor thing!—Rose T. Cooke, ‘Happy Dodd,’ chap. xxxiv.

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