Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a man who lives on the earnings of a prostitute.

1818		W. Perry London Guide 120: The guilt of betraying her Fancy is not confined to the Harridan.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 70: Although One of the Fancy, he was not a fancy-man.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 282/2: The prosecutrix, a fair Cyprian, deposed, that the prisoner was a ‘fancy man’ of Miss Honor Connolly, who resided with her (Bridget), and some other ladies of pleasure, in a ‘house of call’.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 2 Oct. :
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 17 Nov. 99/2: There are, among several other avocations, by which gentlemen of no fixed profession obtain a living in the great metropolis, one, which is vulgarly called fancy men, in other words, gentlemen whose business it is to protect ladies of easy virtue.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 31 Dec. n.p.: The ‘fancy men’ of two or three lewd women from whom they obtain considerable money.
1842		‘The Man About Town’ in Nobby Songster 23: And next as Polly’s fancy man, why I was taken on; / I hooked it out from room to room, when friends by chance dropt in. / And when they’d gone, my poll and I, we gaily spent the tin.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 Sept. 2/5: Sharp the barber, Kitty Wright, Lonsdale (her fancy man), Gipsey Maria (one of her favorite chickens), and Henry Edwards (a flash cabman) [...] made their appearance again before Messrs. Wyndeyer and Campbell, at [...] the Police Office.
1850		Fast Man 2:1 n.p.: [W]e introduce the ‘Fancy Man,’ a character that must not, by any means, be confused with the ‘bulley.’ The first is an attaché to the brothel, the second the follower of the kept-mistress [...] the Fancy Man of the swell blowen who drives her brougham, keeps her tiger, and lives in the region of hyde-park-gardens, is quite another sort of customer to the ‘covey’ that hangs about the poor Drury-lane drab.
1856		N.Y. Daily Trib. 1 Jan. 2/5: A great many street-walkers, attracted by the lights and the shouts, had come in, some in company with their fancy men.
1856		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: How long has Johnny P. been fancy to that old harlot Frank L—g, better known as Black Frank?
1865		T. Archer Pauper, Thief and Convict 25: A mere child of thirteen perhaps, who is half street hawker half prostitute [...] seen flaunting on the streets [...] adopting him [i.e. a pickpocket] as her ‘fancy.’.
1866		Sportsman 29 Sept. 2/1: Notes on News [...]Two unsexed women fought like wild cats [...] backed by their ‘fancy men’ [...] and using language that might have been tolerated in Gomorrah the night before it was burnt down .
1879		London Life 6 Sept. 5/2: Under the Railway Arch was at least twenty prostitutes, and at least as many roughs, who I suppose were their Fancy Men or Bullies.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 5: Joker - A fancy man, who at night is at the cafe’s and nighthouses, sometimes with and seldom far from his ‘woman’ with whom he frequently returns home. Many of them are partly kept by their women.
1885		Indoor Paupers 38: When their mistresses come to grief, and are placed under lock and key, which happens frequently, the fancy man usually manages to skulk out of the mischief and escape scot-free.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 27: Fancy Man, the favorite of a loose woman.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 12: Alphonse, m. A prostitute’s bully; ‘a fancy-man’.
c.1930		(ref. to 1917) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 330: There was talk that the whores and the fancy men were going to burn the place down when they had to leave it.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 24: If you can get the woman to testify against him – then you’ve got him! And as women have all sorts of reasons for losing interest in their fancy-men.

2. a male lover, not always adulterous, but the relationship usu. refers to a married or older woman; occas. used of male homosexuals.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Fancy Man. A man kept by a lady for secret services.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 6 Aug. 639/1: [He] took one of the children and went home, telling her to keep the other, stay with ‘her fancy’ .
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 80: You know him, the rip Riboulet, Manon’s fancy man.
1834		‘The Old Maid And Her Monkey’ in Flash Chaunter 11: Among the rest, a Monkey she call’d Pan, / Who was, forsooth, this lady’s fancy man.
1838		‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life II 213: [S]he [i.e. a scullery-maid] had taken ‘Curly Tom,’ a young man who went out with a market-gardener’s cart sometimes, as her ‘fancy’.
1849		Sam Sly 10 Mar. 3/2: As for her fancy man; Mr. P—e, we think he had better learn to be a little more civil, especially as lie is dependant on his brother-in-law.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 101/1: Why [...] he was my fancy-man years before you ever saw him.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 295: The police had no difficulty in recognizing the handiwork of Matilda – and her ‘fancy’ man, George.
1898		W. Besant Orange Girl I 228: If [...] I choose to bring my fancy man here, am I to ask the Bishop’s leave?
1902		Truth (Sydney) 6 Apr. 5/5: ‘You dirty slut! What about your other fancy man at Cobar?’.
1917		G. De S. Wentworth-James Man Market 118: If Lady Benedden wanted a ‘fancy man’ whom she could marry and entirely keep and pay for, she must look round again.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 310: Belle in her bloomers misconducting herself and her fancy man feeling for her tickles and Norman W. Tupper bouncing in with his peashooter just in time to be late after she doing the trick of the loop with officer Taylor.
1947		R. Goffin Horn of Plenty 121: Perdido’s flashy ‘fancy man,’ who had wore diamonds down to his garters, had been killed by a jealous wench.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ in Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 19: Mam was with some fancy man upstairs on the new bed she’d ordered.
1966		P. Boyle At Night All Cats Are Grey 44: That’ll be one less for your fancy man when he calls.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 95: It had to be a rich woman who’d chosen him for a fancy man I decided.
1974		‘Ricki Francis’ Kings X Hooker 78: ‘How do I know how you got it? ... Off a john seat or maybe you’ve got a fancy man, huh?’.
1980		(con. 1940s) O. Manning Sum of Things 461: That’s good, coming from Lady Hooper’s fancy man.
1994		(con. 1930s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 44: In the vernacular of the tenements an unfaithful husband would have a ‘fancy woman’, or the wife a ‘fancy man’.
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 39: Does your fancy man kiss you like that, you crazy fucking nancy boy?
2003		S. Rose Accidental Heroine 41: Dad answered the door and shouted, ‘It’s your fancy man!’ It was so embarrassing.

3. in weak form of sense 2, a (younger) man who is befriended by an (older) woman.

1821–5

‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 24: Thank you stars in being the fancy-man of [...] Missis Susan Soft-tack.

4. a sexually attractive man.

1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 154: The Jews advanced the chink, and then The Sweepers e’en, were fancy men! With all the Girls in all the Town The Capricorn’s alone went down!
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 242: He is a great fancy man, amongst his own class of society, and most of the female vomen set their caps at him.