Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. on model of abbess n. (1), nun n. (1) a brothel prostitute.

1779

Nocturnal Revels I 141: Every Sister [...] must be either young or handsome [...] this being considered a greater sacrifice to the Goddess Venus.

2. (US) a term of address to any woman whose proper name one does or does not know.

1912		H.G. van Campen ‘Our Theatrical Boarding House’ in L.A. Herald 10 Dec. 10/4: ‘Don’t yuh never git the notion bein’ a mechanic’s a cinch, sister‘.
1925		K. Mullen ‘Westernisms’ in AS I:3 153: ‘Sister’ for any woman or girl, and ‘Son’ for any boy.
1927		E.C.L. Adams Congaree Sketches 16: How is you Sister?
1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 36: ‘Stop it, sister,’ I growled. ‘You’ll bust something.’.
1932		Cab Calloway ‘Man From Harlem’ 🎵 Come on, sisters, light up on these weeds and get high and forget about everything.
1933		C.G. Booth ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 95: McFee said, ‘I’m sorry, sister.’.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 358: He would look at both of them [...] and say: That for you, sister!
1939		J. Weidman What’s In It For Me? 85: ‘It’s all right, sister,’ I said kindly.
1940		(con. 1917) S.J. Simonsen Soldier Bill 45: Don’t call the girls ‘sister’, these girls are refined and do not want to be called sister.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 93: I’m not layin’ you, sister — I’ll never lay you.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 131: ‘You want something else?’ she called. ‘Yeah,’ said the taxi-driver, glaring at Downy. ‘A little service, sister.’.
1958		R. Chandler Playback 87: Don’t call me ‘sister’, you cheap gumshoe!
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 84: Instantly, a woman detached herself from the shadow of a shop doorway, and said, roughly, ‘Beat it, sister’.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 99: OK sister, beat it.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 475: I wouldn’t stick my dick in your stinkin cunt, sister. I’d as lief stick it in the head of a cottonmouth moccasin.
1976		P.Theroux Family Arsenal 98: You’re wrong, sister. It’s easy.
1985		T. Wolff ‘The Sister’ in Back in the World 86: ‘It’s God’s country, sister, and that’s a fact’.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 98: ‘You’re a very old soul . . .’ concludes Rainbow. You said a mouthful there, sister.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 127: Amen, sister. You’ve got the last word so far.

3. a term of address between effeminate male homosexuals; thus self-referential as your sister; thus sisterhood n., homosexuality.

1709		N. Ward Secret Hist. of Clubs 285: They had cushion’d up the Belly of one of their Sodomitical Brethren, or rather Sisters, as they commonly call’d themselves, disguising him in a Womans Night-Gown.
c.1925		R. McAlmon Miss Knight (1963) 50: Miss Knight was holding forth when an American brother in sisterhood came into the Berlin bitchery.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 335/2: sister, n. A male homosexual.
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 2: This booklet has been procured for you through the kindness of your dear mother (or perhaps, sister).
1951		D.W. Cory Homosexual in America 104: Best known among these words are fairy [...] Mary, sissy or sis (sometimes sister).
1955		T. Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Act II: Maybe that’s why you put Maggie and me in this room that was Jack Straw’s and Peter Ochello’s, in which that pair of old sisters slept in a double bed.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 135: Well, honeys [...] your baby sister’s gonna be on her way now.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 48: Sister, how does one say ‘later’ to this dear boy?
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 181: sister one homosexual who is a close confidant to another [...] your sister (pron) oneself.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 14: Sister, did you see the fish line today?
1984		Flame: a Life on the Game 108: He described us as ‘sisters’. That was the first time I’d heard the phrase. I didn’t know the camp lingo then.
1990		(ref. to 1944) A. Bérubé Coming Out Under Fire 86: A gay man in jail was a sister in distress.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 60: Sister An affectionate term used among homosexuals.
2005		(con. 1950s) E. White My Lives 104: A straight man was viewed as the highest good and another queen as [...] a pathetic ‘sister.’.
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 70: One’s sister was an intimate friend or fellow worker who was generally not a lover.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] [used of a trans-sexual prisoner] ‘You’re bunking with a sister named Rene’.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 109: ‘I consider you a sister now. Tis bad fay to split a sibling’s arriss open’.

4. used self-referentially by a woman.

1921

N. Putnam West Broadway 16: ‘Why, I wouldn't take that trip for worlds!’ ‘Lots of folks take it for less,’ says Al. ‘But not sister!’ says I.

5. (US black) a black woman; esp. as the sisters; also occas. attrib.

1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 37: LIZA was large, and colored [...] Her sweetie smiled, and asked: ‘Sister, did you ever sit in the mud?’.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 80: Come outa that, sistah, and gimme mah cap.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 150: No lie. And they wasn’t near as easy to gaze on as that sister, either.
1945		C. Himes If He Hollers 50: A dark brown woman [...] falling along in that knee-buckling, leaning forward, housemaid’s lope [...] she was really a comical sister.
1954		W.G. Smith South Street 290: ‘I heard some of the sisters talking the other day about a speech you made’.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 13: The smug sanctimoniousness of a saved sister.
1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 88: They arrested me and the sister. It was her first time going to jail.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: sister n. a black woman.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 216: Tell the sister what the real deal is.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 108: Five years ago you could have caught these turkeys [...] chowing down on chitlins and black-eyed peas with the Brothers and Sisters.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines xx: Like I consider you a sister.
1984		(con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 11: This riot [...] started over some white guys using a bunch of profanity in front of some sisters.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 56: Sounds like he’s got a few sisters singin’ backup, too.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 4: Had some sisters before I was married, understand, but not every single sister.
1999		Observer Mag. 15 Aug. 8: Get hep, sista.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 271: So, you like the sisters, huh, Gus? You prefer ’em to your own kind, that’s what it is?
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 234: Gus is married to a sister, he tell you that?
2008		Sun. Times (S.Afr.) 27 Jan. 21: They are indeed the sistah souljahs, who celebrate their roots.
2012		J. Díaz This Is How You Lose Her 14: I shit you not; these sisters even have to wear hankies onn their heads.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 197: I see plenty enough white girls there [...] but I can’t say there was ever that many sisters.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘You tell the sistuh how many brothuhs you tuned up with your nightstick back in the day?’.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] A hardworking mid-forties sister with a bad weave.

6. (US) a man who is, or is considered to be effeminate or weak [abbrev. colloq. weak sister].

1934		W.R. Burnett Goodbye to the Past 53: He’s one of the best men we’ve got, father. Hard-working and loyal.’ ‘Maybe. But I won’t have insubordination. A jolt in the army would do that four-eyed sister a lot of good.
1942		W.R. Burnett Quick Brown Fox 21: He was a poor drinker. Had no taste for it at all. But he didn’t want Joe to think he was a sister.

7. (gay) the platonic gay friend of another gay man; similarly used by lesbians.

[1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Libelled Ladies’ Sporting Times 20 June 1/3: Ladies who preside at suburban tea-tables cordially endorse the action of their sisters ‘across the pond’ in demanding a retraction from the Rev. S. Goodman of the Men’s Church].
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 15: sister: An intimate friend and confidant who is not a lover.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 50: Soon a couple of her white ‘sisters’ swish by, two equally effeminate young men.
1965		A. James America’s Homosexual Underground 30: His best pal or ‘sister,’ as chums are known in the ‘gay world.’.
1970		J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1/2 58: sister n Fellow homosexual.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language 39: Sister—gay who shares intimate confidences, but does not have sex, with a gay pal.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 18: It must have been a sister who designed your uniforms.
1997–2002		Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 sister platonic gay buddy of another gay. Term not used by ‘masculine’ gays today.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 94/2: sister n. gay male friend (Don’t you badmouth my sister!).
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 298/1: sister a friend who may have also been also been a sexual partner at one point.

8. (camp gay) in pl., the police, when working in pairs.

1980

Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 230: If they travel in pairs [...] they are sisters (nuns), Bobsey twins, etc.

9. (orig. US) a feminist or fellow woman.

[1863		Annals of the Army of the Cumberland 638: A lady of Northern birth and education, but a bitter rebel, was reading to a mixed company [...] and embracing an old negress, calling her ‘sister,’ &c.].
1917		S. Lewis Job 172: ‘[S]ome pious sister who hasn’t been married and believes in pussy-footing around and taking it all to God’.
1923		Thetford & Walton Times 7 Apr. 14/3: That will not warrant those of us who have not the inclination to cary a cigarette [...] denouncing every sister who is devoted to the ‘small smoke’.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 19: Say you and your sister were in business together and you couldn’t get a trick to go with you [etc.].
1967		A. Baraka Tales (1969) 40: I guess I better straighten this sister out.
1974		Harper’s Mag. June 84: I don’t pretend to understand all of my ‘sisters’.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 218: It’s the least I can do for a sister.
1999		Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 23: Discussions and screenings from [...] cowgirls; and ‘radical black sisters’.
2000		I. McDowall A Study in Death 192: Whatever the right-on sisters might have thought about the women in the force.

10. in pl., see sisters of the scabbard