Green’s Dictionary of Slang

ixnay adv.

(US) no.

1929		in Goulding & Mason Broadway Melody [film script] Ixnay! Ixnay! [HDAS].
1933		N. Davis ‘Kansas City Flash’ in Ruhm Hard-Boiled Detective (1977) 78: Mark Hull shook his head. ‘Ixnay. I like trouble.’.
1934		R. Sale ‘A Nose for News’ in Goulart (1967) 199: Ixnay on the pathos. Let’s get it over.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 69: That crook of a guv’nor’ll be here in a minute, breaking his neck to sign you up for a series of fights in his hall. Tell him its ixnay.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 ‘Is she the one that knifed Bonham?’ ‘Ix-nay,’ I said.
1959		M. Richler Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 180: ‘Maybe I oughta go with you?’ ‘Ixnay.’.
1964		R.D. Abrahams Deep Down in the Jungle 193: ‘Brethren and sistren, I take my text tonight from the sixteenth chapter of Habbakuk [sic] where it says—uh, uh—‘thou who sees me, and thinks that you knows me, ixnay-ackencray [‘nix cracks,’ say nothing, in pig latin]’.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 208: ‘Ixnay. I maybe through with Shakespeare but not with show business’.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 9: Like a fool I told him ixnay.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 152: Ixnay. No these fat ones.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 310: ‘Ixnay . . . ixnay,’ said one policeman. I remember it clearly because it was a term I hadn’t heard since school. Ixnay! What kinda shit is that?
1999		Guardian Guide 4–10 Dec. 12: Which, inexplicably, meant ixnay on the pump-action Berettas.
2002		G. Sandusky Mishaps and Miracles 212: Gerry, ixnay the itshay.