Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./US) the ‘automatic’ nickname of any one-armed man.

1870		M. Cash Life and Adventures 44: Jerusalem chain gang was then in charge of a worthy styled Wingy W-n.
1870		Sydney Morn. Herald 8 July 5/3: A one-armed gentleman of rather erratic habits and known to the police as ‘Wingy Smith’.
1880		D.W. Barrett Life and Work among Navvies 49: If a poor fellow has the misfortune to lose an eye, he gains the name of ‘Gunner;’ if he is short of a leg or an arm, ‘Peggy’ or ‘Wingy.’.
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 259: A notorious Birmingham thief known as ‘Wingey,’ from the fact that he had lost the fingers of one hand.
1909		W.H. Davies Beggars 12: ‘Wingy,’ who had lost an arm.
1912		A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 127: My name’s Wingie. [...] I’m an old soldier; was at Bull Run. Run so damn fast I lost my right wing, hah, hah, hah!
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 19 June 3/5: Wingie, the one arm conductor, has had another motor fit.
1918		‘A-No. 1’ Mother of the Hoboes 43: Wingy: train rider who lost one or both arms.
1920		Daily News (Perth) 9 July 5/2: [heading] Our Returned Soldiers. Our ‘Wingies and Stumpies’ Forgather.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 303: The partner I had before him was a guy name o’ Wingy, a one-armed stiff.
1930		(con. 1890) G. Milburn ‘A Convention Song’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 26: There was Pete the Shive from Slapjack’s dive, / And Wino Bill from Cal, / Parson-faced Ed and Wingey Red.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 58: Missions are very anxious to recruit the ‘wingies’ and ‘armies,’ or the one-armed hobos so they can give them jobs holding collection plates at the doors through which the slummers pass.
1945		J. Henderson Gunner Inglorious (1974) 75: Van, George and Tom were all ‘wingies’, suffering from smashed arms.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 83: Broken men and breaking ones; wingies, dingies, zanies and lop-sided kukes; cokies and queers and threadbare whores.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xliii 11/3: wingy: A one-armed person.
1971		K. Willey Boss Drover 150: One of the most unlikely fighters I knew in the bush was Wingy Collins. He was a big fellow and he took his name from the fact that one arm was twisted.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.