Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an overtly homosexual, effeminate man.

1916		F. Dunham diary 20 Nov. Long Carry (1970) 10: My Company Officer was [...] known as ‘Nellie’ to the troops, because of his girlish face and swanky ways.
1927		F.M. Thrasher Gang 340: ‘An unmanly boy [. . .] Nellie’.
1931		B. Niles Strange Brother (1932) 196: The police would raid the place, and for a time the ‘Nellies’ would vanish. [Ibid.] 273: Did you know a boy called ‘Nelly,’ over there on the Island?
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 143: A parachutist stiffened, flipped a wrist, and bawled: –Oh saaaay, Nellie!
1961		K. Williams Diaries 1 July 174: Today was the hottest day since 1947 [...] All the nellies in the Parks.
1969		A. Keith Melissa n.p.: ‘You didn’t have to give it [i.e. man-to-man fellatio] to an old nell with half his teeth missing’.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 141: nell (fr colloq nervous nelly) overly effeminate male.
1979		Maledicta III:2 219: Dialect yields some rare words (huckle = the sort of nelly the US celebrated in the early novel The Scarlet Pansy).
1988		in Walking After Midnight (1989) 169: She has the preconceived notion about limp wrists and screaming Nellies.
1992		D. Jarman letter 22 May Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 130: Aren’t we all secret nellies with tough-as-fuck exteriors?
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 24: Jeff shook nelly-style.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 26: [G]iggling like wet nellies.
2014		(con. 1926) T. McCauley ‘For Whom No Bells Toll’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] ‘Christ help the man or woman who gets between you and that blusterin’ Nelly’.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 295/2: nelly a feminine gay man.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 62: Juicy exposés [...] Jittery Johnnie Ray. The Boys call him ‘Nervous Nellie’.

2. a term of address between homosexual men.

1709		R. Steele Tatler No. 26 n.p.: My Reason for troubling you [...] is put a Stop, if it may be, to an insinuating, increasing Set of People, who [...] assume the Name of Pretty Fellows; nay, and even get new Names, as you very well hint. Some of them I have heard calling to one another as I have sat at White’s and St. James’s, by the Names of, Betty, Nelly, and so forth. You see them accost each other with effeminate Airs.
1961		‘Lou Rand’ Gay Detective (2003) 33: ‘Oh, the things you say, Nellie!’ [...] he rambled on effusively, illustrating each point with fluttering gestures of his hands.
1965		K. Marlowe Mr Madam (1967) 54: I can’t believe I ever carried on so Nelly!
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 197: You feel left out, Nelly Belle?

3. a general term of disparagement, a fool.

1961		H. Livings Stop it, Whoever You Are (1962) Act II: You still get some daft nellie getting all worked up about battles he’s not fighting.
1972		Galton & Simpson ‘Man of Letters’ Steptoe and Son [TV script] You great big nellie. What are you? You want to get back in your cot, mate.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 91: If he is inept, a habitual muddler, he is like ‘a wet nellie’.
2000		Guardian 22 Feb. 24: Cissie, you daft nellie.

4. (US campus) a lesbian.

1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 63: Nelly n Lesbian.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 252: Nelly, a sissy, weakling, or silly person; a homosexual or lesbian.