wally, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

wally n.²

also wallie, wolly

[ety. unknown. ? Naples dial. guaglio, (from standard Ital. qualcuno, someone), a boy; other suggestions incl. abbr. Scot. wally-drag, a feeble, ill-grown or worthless person. The proper name Walter is sometimes categorized as a ‘silly’ name. In police jargon, a wally is a trainee and thus incompetent police officer: note Newman, Sir, You Bastard (1970): ‘He would resign rather than return to being a wolly’; poss. ext. of wally n.¹ with, see cite 1827, the image of one who is ‘green as a cucumber’ (note Fr. cornichon, a gherkin, also means a fool in argot)]

1. (also wally-brain) an unfashionable, unintelligent, ‘suburban’ person, lacking in taste and sophistication.

[1827		W. Clarke Every Night Book 25: To see some score or so of human animals struggling to float upon a few feet of imprisoned water, is a mighty contemptible spectacle to any but a cockney gherkin [...] No one who is not as green as a cucumber will attempt to learn to swim by corks].
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 15 May 9/1: Flapper Dictionary wallie – A Goof with patent leather hair.
1922		Davenport Democrat and Leader (IA) 28 May 32/2–3: I went goofy over one toppy wally.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 194: Wally.– A ‘small town’ sport or gambler.
1932		L.W. Merryweather ‘Argot of an Orphans’ Home’ in AS VII:6403: wally, n. A short, fat person.
1934		G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 164: These wallies are all rubber socks with the wife around.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 222: He deserves one of my copyright nicknames. How about Wally Watch.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘A Slow Bus to Chingford’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Well he was a wally-brain weren’t he?
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 29: ‘Hoardes [sic] of wallies gawking at you’.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 213: A suitable marriage to some bovine, tweed-suited wally.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 163: I’ll just act the complete wally and switch right off.
1995		M. Simpson ‘Prufrock Scoused’ Catching Up with Hist. 22: Thee orl gorp at yiz as if yiv juss come over, callin yer a wally behind yer backs.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 7: You’d like me to [...] go on the [radio] station and make a complete wally of myself.
1999		Guardian G2 31 Aug. 15: He’s making a prize wally of himself.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Did some wally actually get paid to write this?
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 344: You look a total wally if you dance too early.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 294: My mum said if I came back with it here she’d kill me. —Farking wally.

2. a small-town gambler.

1927

‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 466: wally, A small town gambler.

3. (US tramp) a tramp who stays within radius of his home town.

1930

‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 217: Wallies — Town bums who never lose sight of the city walls.

4. a person with learning difficulties; also attrib.

1974

G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 83: The emotional involvement which Angie had offered him with her wolly child would have brought him down.

wally n.2

wally n.²