Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a Jew, esp. an East European Jew who retains their accent, mannerisms and general culture.

1897		Star 7 July 5: That the Government will not listen to the oily tongues of the numerous deputations financed by a clique of Peruvians ... must be the earnest wish of every person who has been waiting patiently for them to do something towards improving the morals of this town [DSAE].
1900		Rand Daily Mail in Pettman Africanderisms 370: Behold one of the most striking types of Johannesburg life — the Peruvian.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 2 Mar. 3/1: Writing to an English paper, a Johannesburg correspondent says : — ‘As is the case in every country where we can lift our heads to yelp at the English flag, crowds of Peruvian Jews [...] are getting money where British people should be’.
1912		W. Westrup Land of To-Morrow 218: At the opposite side of the road was a fruit store of sorts ... It was run by a Jew of the kind locally known as Peruvian, and ... was a very third-rate kind of place [DSAE].
1915		S. Ford Torchy, Private Sec. 41: Whiffo! [...] What kind of a Peruvian dialect is this?
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 261: Then I met a Peruvian smouse*, and sold him my clothes and bought from him these. [*Peter meant a Polish-Jew pedlar].
1923		B. Ronan Forty S. Afr. Years 163: Those early days saw the influx of that strange race, locally known as ‘Peruvians’. How they obtained their title is not very clear. I believe it was first given to some Polish and Russian Jews who came out to South Africa after failing to make a living after the failure of Baron Hirsch’s Jewish colonisation scheme in South America [DSAE].
1944		A.A. Roback Dict. International Slurs 58: Peruvian Jews, Jews, who having been unable to cope with colonization conditions in South America come to settle in South Africa.
1956		H.M. Bates Afr. without Prejudice 59: Kruger [...] saw in this a deliberate move by Rhodes to dominate the polls with mine employees and ... ‘Peruvians’ (a term of contempt which is applied to Jews of low class).

2. a fellow Jew who fails to meet the community’s ethical and moral standards.

1987

cited in J. & W. Branford Dict. S. Afr. Eng. (1991).

3. a member of Tammany Hall.

1915

S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 165: Not that I [...] am apt to shy at a dinner coat, like a selfmade Tammany statesman when addressin’ his fellow Peruvians.