Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also swisher, swishy) by meton., a homosexual man [swish v.¹ (2)].

1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 19 Jan. [synd. col.] ‘Oh,’ oh’d the chum, ‘don’t be silleh. Everyone knew Oscar [Wilde] was a swish!’.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 16: As far as I know my friends have not yet started whispering it around that I am a swish.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 44: I seen Nifty Louie steerin’ some old swish in there.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 42–3: The same rock bottom factors that are responsible for the wave of swishes accounts for the epidemic of homosexuality among the maidens, though in reverse.
1957		Jet 26 Dec. 47: Harlem plainsclothes men detailed to patrol a 125th St. bar and grill, which is city-wide headquarters for the limp wrist set. When propositioned by swishers [...] cops haul them off to the nearest station house.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 82: I’m no dress designer swish from the costume department!
1959		J. Osborne World of Paul Slickey Act I: He’s contrary, he’s a swishy.
1963		Dundes & Schonhorn ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in AS XXXVIII:3 171: Some of the less frequent, but more expressive, phrases are: [...] swish.
1964		Homosexuality & Citizenship in Florida 23: Glossary of Homosexual Terms [...] swishy: A homosexual with very effeminate ways, especially in walking and gestures.
1964		J. Blake letter 24 June in Joint (1972) 228: Vast improvement on the sad little swishes.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 208: Swish [...] Swisher A homosexual.
1970		San Diego Sailor 19: This feller was no swish. There wasn’t anything sissy about him.
1970		J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1/2 51: Fairy, faggot, and swish were familiar to all ten of the heterosexual informants, and they agreed that these words have unpleasant connotations. Homosexuals indicated that they knew the words, but felt that they were more properly to be regarded as heterosexual slang.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 74: stereotype effeminate homosexual [...] swish[er].
1972		New Yorker 15 July 64: The News broadened its views on the subject only to the extent of offering its readers a larger selection of sobriquets: ‘Fairies, nancies, swishes, fags, lezzes’.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 161: Teenage males identify homosexuals [...] in ‘feminine’ terms: [...] swish, funny, fruit, girl.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 136: The swish next door said he ‘played the field’.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 94: He had a soft gentle handshake like a woman and for a second I thought he might be a swisher.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 446: He’s a mean swish. He’s Haiti-bred. He’s pure calypso [...] He’s a he-she.
2014		(con. 1926) T. McCauley ‘For Whom No Bells Toll’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] ‘I’ve seen more action that you or this fat swish’.

2. soda water, e.g. Scotch and swish.

1939

R. Chandler ‘Trouble Is My Business’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 184: There was a Scotch and swish on a tabouret.

3. (orig. US) the male homosexual’s effeminate style [swish v.¹ (2)].

1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 93: Harvard is so gay you can hear the swish across the River Charles.
1976		(con. 1920s) D. Maurer ‘Lang. and the Sex Revolution’ in AS LI 7: The myth that all Frenchmen were slightly bisexual was widely believed, the swish of some deviants being confused with the affected mannerisms of the stereotyped French fop.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language.

4. (Aus., also swisho) physical violence [SE swish, echoic of cane used in corporal punishment].

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xl 4/5: swish or swisho: A fight. ‘A bit of a swish.’.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 9: ‘[H]e dodged over the frog to give ’em a bitta swish’.

5. (N.Z. prison) abuse, harassment, heckling.

1982

G. Newbold Big Huey 71: But if the speaker could cop the swish, and give a bit in return [...] this would be met with loud cheers. [Ibid.] 131: Because I was doing something which the staff didn’t like I started getting a bit of swish from them.