Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an effeminate man, a homosexual.

1910		Variety 6 Aug. 13: It is not good policy to have the Salvationist [played as] a ‘nance’ [OED].
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 155: Silly nance! Byron growled.
1935		R. Chandler ‘Nevada Gas’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 166: What was that crack, nance?
1937		J. Tully Bruiser 208: That ham, Corbett, with his ring-around-the-rosy in the ring – a nance weighin’ two hundred.
1942		P. Wylie Generation of Vipers 61: Many of the men who are inborn sluggers of nances are motivated by a sense of shame and fear caused by the fact that they have engaged in lifelong psychological battles to repress [...] homosexual urges.
1953		W.P. McGivern Big Heat 115: Bannon, a jerk of a cop, and Cranston, an old woman, had them shaking like a pair of nances.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 32: nance (or nancy) (n., adj.): (1) Homosexual, as used by the heterosexual. (2) Very feminine male homosexual, as used by the homosexual.
1970		San Diego Sailor 72: Who was the old nance?
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 26: My nances are different from your nances, nor every man can be a hoor.
1999		T. Doherty Pre-code Hollywood 121: In 1932 a Pathé cameraman acted the part of a nance cooing over his precious pups at a dog show.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 423: Malcolm Baker, what a nance. Wears knix an stockings under is pants.
2004		E. Murfin Sabbatical 174: Tell the truth, thought he was a bit of a nance, you know?
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 640: We nances are turned on by the same gear as straights.