Green’s Dictionary of Slang

artsy-fartsy adj.

pretentious.

1961		D. Westlake Killing Time 55: [H]e sank money into artsyfartsy plays that usually dropped dead.
1971		Frendz 21 May 2/2: Artsy-fartsy. If they can call property Art, we can call anything we bloody well please Art.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 152: I might go over and liven the big poofter and his artsy-fartsy mates up.
1989		J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 artsy-fartsy [RIT] graphic arts major.
1998		Source Oct. 206: Die hard / for the love of it / artsie-fartsie [...] Mad Rap fans.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 25 July 3: Nothing too artsy-fartsy, you understand.
2007		C. Hope My Mother’s Lovers 291: She was particularly scathing about ‘artsy-fartsy stuff’, which she regarded as [...] ‘unreal’, even ‘sick-making’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 852: Or only in artsy fartsy places like Ducis.