Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. French.

1826		Glasgow Herald 27 Nov. 4/2: But as to the dominoos [...] the Frenchy maun had left them as a token o’ gratitude [...] for a bit of comfortable supper.
1849		Dublin Eve. Mail 18 May 2/1: When Frenchy tyranny becomes insupportable, we shall find our Cromwell.
1881		Dundee Courier 11 jan. 7/3: ‘Ye blastit wee Frenchie buddy,’ exlaimed M’Tartan.
1889		Appeal (St Paul, MN) 10 Aug. 3/4: The very Frenchy bonbonnieres made of jewel crystals.
c.1895		Leighton & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Actions Speak Louder Than Words 🎵 And when the darling looks at him in a very Frenchy way [etc].
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 315: French Louis [...] claimed to have been a quartermaster in the ship that brought Napoleon's remains from St. Helena. He was very Frenchy and important.
a.1900		Nevin & Morton [perf. C. Godfrey] ‘Regent Street’ 🎵 Once young damsel — Frenchy M’amselle.
1908		Dly Public Ledger (Maysville, KY) 3 Dec. 2/2: An innovation [that] has a Frenchy [...] flavor that’s astonishngly refreshing.
1911		G. Stratton-Porter Harvester 332: I think perhaps that’s a little Frenchy.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 16 Feb. 7/8: Frenchy gelIs, in my opinion, / Are more lively, anyway.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 96: Out climbs a couple that you might have said had been shot over by aëroplane from the Rue de Rivoli. Couldn’t tell that so much from her getup as from the Frenchy hat and boulevard whiskers he’s sportin’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 404: You larn that go off of they there Frenchy bilks.
1935		C. Odets Awake and Sing! II i: Put up at ritzy hotels, frenchie soap, champagne.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 21: One simple moral [...] Frenchy-wise [...] ‘Tu l’as voulu, Georges Dandin.’ [Ibid.] 127: Frenchy torches held by human-arm brackets out from the walls.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 70: This Frenchy-lookin woman.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 109: Con had him strip to his underwear, the little Frenchie kind.

2. lightheaded, frivolous.

1844		Era (London) 14 July 6/3: The ‘Soldier of Fortune’, which is the history of one of those ‘Enfans [sic] de la Revolution,’ [...] is too ‘Frenchy’ not to show its French origin.
1846		Era (London) 14 June 3/3: instead of a drama [...] we had to tolerate a trumpery, inconsequential and Frenchy vaudeville.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 214: Frenchy, light-headed and frivolous. ‘I don’t like Frenchy girls.’.
1923		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 30 July [synd. col.] Then another [girl]. The type Manhattan calls ‘Frenchy.’.
1940		H. Ranfurly diary 28 Feb. in To War With Whitaker (1994) 21: When I asked what Cairo was like he said, ‘A filthy, Frenchy, modern town – an ancient, elegant, primitive city’.

3. smartly dressed.

1974

Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 3: Frenchy – very well dressed.