Green’s Dictionary of Slang

persimmon; esp. in simmon beer; also attrib.

1775		J. Boucher Boucher’s Gloss. 1: Brown linen shirts, and cotton jackets wear, Or only wring-jaw drink, and ’simmon beer [DA].
1834		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) III 36: They seemed to me to fall just as fast as if I was shakin’ down ’simmons [DA].
1843		‘Madison Tensas’ Louisiana ‘Swamp Doctor’ (1850) 50: Crosh, cochunk! we all cum down like ’simmons arter frost.
1851		‘How Sally Hooter Got Snake-Bit’ in T.A. Burke Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 71: It was ’simmon time, an’ she’d bin eatin er powerful sight uv um.
1859		G.W. Harris ‘Sut Lovingood’s Love Feast’ Nashville Union and American XXIX April in Inge (1967) 240: The possum hed a weakness fur simmons.
1860		Cleveland Dly Leader 5 Mar. 1/4: ‘Hitch your horse to that simmon tree! Don’t you see that’s me [...] only chance for simmon beer’.
1881		Harper’s Mag. Apr. 729/2: An’ pleased they wuz ter see it—pleased as boys in ’simmon-time [DA].
1883		Atlanta Constitution (GA) 6 Dec. 4/2: The Georgia ballad which sings ther praises of ‘Possum and tater and simmon beer’.
1896		Inter-Ocean (Chicago, IL) 1 Jan. 16/5: He acted somewhat queer [...] owing to some extra simmon beer.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 370: simmon, n. Persimmon [...] ‘This simmon beer is powerful good.’.
1909		‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny 350: That’s why you see me cake-walking with the ex-rebs to the illegitimate tune about ’simmon-seeds and cotton.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 131: simmon, from persimmon.
1922		‘Shake The Persimmons Down’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 34: De raccoon up in de ’simmon tree.
1928		N.I. White Amer. Negro Folk-Songs 366: [reported from Auburn, AL, 1915–1916] When I got good ole egg-nog an’ ’simmon beer, / An’ I git tight, yer need not keer.
1931		H.B. Parks ‘Southwestern Lore IX’ in Botkin (1944) 15–26: Dave put the pigs in the goobers and sent me to the bottom field to cut out some ’simmon sprouts.
1934		‘Sandy Lan’’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 237: Big fat possum up-a ’simmon tree, / Make a big supper fer you and me.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 91: A nigger dat useter do a lot of prayin’ up under ’simmon tree.
1945		Botkin Lay My Burden Down 41: Every time us shake our tree [...] down come the ’simmons. [Ibid.] 66: ’Simmon beer was good in the cold freezing weather too.
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 427: Raccoon up de ’simmon tree [...] Racoon shake dem ’simmons down.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 29: Want a simmon, boy?