Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sour buttermilk.

1616		Jonson Irish Masque (1692) 374: pat: Tey drinke no bonny clabbe, i’fayt, now. don: It is better ten usquebagh to daunsh wit, Patrick.
a.1618		J. Harington Epigrams IV No. 6: Bisket we like, and Bonny Clabo heere.
1619		J.T. Westminster Hunting of the Pox n.p.: If they [i.e. the Irish] be sicke, or Feuor-like, or what disease doth fall, Their Shamrok and their Bonny-Clabb, is medicen good for all.
1629		Jonson New Inn I i: It is against my freehold [...] To drink such balderdash, or bonny-clabber!
1656		‘Basilius Musophilus’ Don Zara Del Fogoy 17: Both Brandy-wine and Aqua-vitae [...] As plentiful as Bonniclabber.
1663		Head Hic et Ubique V ii: De Cow dat make de butter-milk, and de bonny clabber for dy child.
c.1663		‘Iter Hibernicum’ in Carpenter Verse in English from Tudor & Stuart Eng. (2003) 389: And saw them with no little Clatter / Make Boneclabbour, and churn Butter.
1664		R. Howard The Committee V i: I’le put you, Sir, where you shall have worse liquor, Then your Bonny-Clabber.
1674		Hogan-Moganides 32: They brought to State Monopoly [...] Curds and Whey, and Churns, and Cream pots, Which to prevent a subtile Drab Found out the Art of Bana-Clab.
c.1687		‘Mac O Bonniclabbero of Drogheda’ Bog Witticisms 48: Vee will be for mauking a Daury in Lincoln-Inn-Fields be Chreest [...] And we vill shing Curds and Crame by Chreest, and Buttar and Eggs, Bony-Clabber, and Tiff, untel de Coow shall have Cauf.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1700		in Wit’s Cabinet 120: I shall get you good Bonny clabber.
1704		W. King ‘Mully of Mountown’ in Chalmers Eng. Poets IX (1810) 284/1: Pudding and beef I love; and cannot stoop To recommend your bonny-clapper soup.
1725		N. Ward Amorous Bugbears 11: The Sawnies and Jockies of North-Britain, would have swore, by the Complexion of his Masque [...] that he had fed on nothing but Bonny-clapper.
1728		Swift ‘Dialogue between Mad Mullinix and Timothy’ in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) XI 470/2: We scorn, for want of talk, to jabber / Of parties o’er our bonny-clabber.
1732		‘An Irish Wedding’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 112: From thick Bonny-Clauber, Medicine for Witches / [...] / Good Lord deliver us.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1746		[jest-book title] The irish miscellany, or Teagueland jests [...] coullected bee de grete Caare and Painsh-Tauking of oour Laurned Countree-Maun, Mac O Bonniclabbero of Drogheda, Knight of the Mendicant Order.
1791		J. Walker Pronouncing Dict. 58/2: Bonny-clabber, Sour buttermilk.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 221: Ye slabber up wickedness as if it was buttermilk or bonnaugh clabber.
1821		Phelam O’Gimblet 20: What pleasure to see her lips jabber [...] And their taste is just like bonny-clabber.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888).
1833		C.A. Davis Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 73: The change might give a few persons some cream, all the rest would git nothin but skim milk and bonny clabber.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 98: Bonny-clabber, thick milk from which the whey is drained.
1876		Staffs. Sentinel 19 Apr. 4/2: The milk brought to your door in the morning [...] will frequently go our [...] what some people call ‘bonny-clapper’.
1883		Sweet & Knox On a Mexican Mustang, Through Texas 152: He was engaged in wharehousing a bowl of clabber.
1893		Mohave Co. Miner (Mineral Park, AZ) 30 Sept. 2/2: Supper will be [...] chicken and dumplings, and coffee and clabber.
1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:v 295: barney clapper, n. Bonney clabber, thick soured milk.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 75: clabber, n. Sour milk composed of curd and whey which are not yet separated. ‘I like clabber’.
1910		P.W. Joyce Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland (1979) 219: Bonnyclabber; thick milk.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 403: No dollop this but thick rich bonnyclaber.
1926		J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) 81: He’s ugly enough to turn sweet milk to clabber.
1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 30: If you want to see me jabber / Set me down to uh bowl uh clabber.
1945		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 204: The first time I saw her she was floating downstream, / With a belly full of clabber and a cunt full of cream.
1958		in Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 427: If you want to see me jabber / Set me down to uh bowl uh clabber.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 294: We live off [...] Cottage cheeses, clabber, nature’s products.
1970		F. Collymore Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 20: Bonny-clabber. Milk naturally clotted on souring.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 237: They accepted Gunner with a guileless camaraderie, offering him bites of leathery clabber bread.
1993		S. Heaney Midnight Verdict 27: Move, or I’ll drag you through the clabber.
2003		C.M. Dean-Burrows I See Da Sea Rise 106: clava – skim milk.

2. generic for an Irish person.

1690

‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 70: Out, you Lousie Bogg-trotting Skip [...] marry troop up, Bonny-clapper.