sheeny, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sheeny n.

also sheena, sheeney, sheenie, sheenyman, sheney, shinee, shoony

[as laid out by Nathan Süsskind (Cohen (ed.), Studies in Slang II, 1989), Yid. shayner Yid, a pious (lit. ‘a beautiful-faced’) Jew; the pious, thus old-fashioned and trad. Jew. According to the Talmud such a Jew has a full beard – beauty in this case being spiritual rather than physical. The phr. was used by assimilated German Jews, who had emigrated to England, as a derog. term, meaning ‘an old-fashioned Jew’, i.e. in habits, clothing and religion, which mocked their less sophisticated successors, who followed them from Germany and clung on (at least initially) to their old-fashioned ways. The first half of the phrase, which the ‘uncultured’ Jews pronounced sheena rather than the more Germanic schön, was taken up by gentile Jew-baiters to create sheeny; note WWI milit. sheeny, a careful, extra-economical man]

1. a derog. term for a Jew; thus used as a nickname/term of address.

1816		J.H. Lewis Lectures on Art of Writing (1840) 84: A motley-fool the thing I mean is, / One of the common puffing sheenies.
1824		Morn. Post (London) 7 Apr. 3/5: At the close of battle Barney (Aaron) was landed in a barouche and coach and four [and] the swellish part of Petticoat-lane and St Catherine’s [...] assembled to congratulate there little shinee.
1824		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 14 Nov. 336/2: The sets-to were better than usual, in which Harry Holt, O’Neil, Izzy Belasco, Saunders, Cooper the gypsey, Oliver and Aby Belasco, distinguished themselves. The Sheenies were very numerous, and took a lively interest in the above civil hero of ‘their people’.
1831		Satirist (London) 25 Dec. 298/3: Placid ye ye are, my Sheenies! as the precincts of Petticoat-lane can testify.
1840		Flash Mirror 9: Vy didn’t I pay five couters for that kinchin you carries on your dab, you dirty sheena?
1842		Morn. Advertiser (London) 23 Dec. 1/6: The City swarmed with vagrants of all kids, coster-mongers, chaunters, shoonies, spunk-fencers and the whole race of cadgers.
1848		Paul Pry 18 Dec. n.p.: We advise Ch—s R—k—r, alias Fat Charley, to [...] open a cook-shop [...] where he can supply the Sheenies with roast pork.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 53: A man known to Jack Circle and his gang as ’Sheney Bill’ (the word Sheney among them, means Jew). [Ibid.] IV 101: He’s keen, even for a sheeney!
1855		(con. 1837) Fights for the Championship 356: Cheers from the Sheenies, and cries of ‘Ishrael vill vin’.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 95: Our judaical public-house lies in Amindab Street, close to Talmud Square [...] On one side resides Mr. Reuben Sheeny, dealer in old gold and silver. [Ibid.] 96: ‘The Sheenies Arms’ round the corner.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 24/2: The house in which this ‘sheeney’ lived was a curious and antiquated building.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 307: Please when you see your father again, tell him that the little ‘Sheney,’ i.e., Jew, don’t forget his kindness to him.
1877		Chicago Street Gazette 1/5: That Sheeney, Greenewall, it seems will never tumble, but is getting from bad to worse. Why can’t you drop? Don’t you see the ice bird is making laughing stock of you?
1879		Chicago Trib. 12 June 6/1: ‘Sheeney’ George admitted [...] that he (Sheeney) shot Race.
1879		London Life 4/2: [N]ow it seems that they [i.e. the Egyptians] sadly want to have a turn at the ‘sheeny’.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Nov. 3/2: That sweet scented little Sheeney, Adonis ‘Teddy’ Solomon, has just narrowly escaped penal servitude.
1889		W.D. Howells Hazard of New Fortunes VIII 452: Pay Sheney off, and discharge him on the spot.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 18 Jan. 4/2: Two Sheenies were conversing in a Rosehill-bound train. ‘Accha Nebbish, vhat a shockin’ affliction’s come ofer pore Solly’ [etc].
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 64: One o’ the decentest little Sheenies as ever waited for winners at the bottom of ’Are Court — Issy Hyamson.
1900		T. Dreiser Sister Carrie 148: There was another fellow there, representing Burnstein, a regular hook-nosed sheeny.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Feb. 1/1: Shermominy! how the sheenies do shine.
1904		O. Kildare Good of the Wicked 17: ‘Italian’ Joe, ‘Dutch’ Oscar, and ‘Sheeney’ Ike, a cosmopolitan trio of shoe-string gamblers.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Aug. 4/7: Dutchy Perlstein eyed him up and Dutchy eyed him down, / For a joy to the soul of a sheenyman is a mug from an English town.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 June 2nd sect. 12/8: Why must our motherland endure / These Sheenies with the waddle walk?
1910		Sporting Times 8 Jan. 1/5: A little Saturday-afternoon Sheeny, who had had a quid on, was touching the bookie.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 307: Two bob, you miserable Sheenie.
1926		(con. 1900s) J.B. Booth ‘Master’ and Men 297: The Goyisher brings an action, an’ wins, an’ then the Sheeney begins to step round lively.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 230: The sheeny was screaming.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 1: His long nose was [...] almost a sheeny’s nose.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 9: Sheeny: Jew.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 44: sheeney – a Jew.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 6: Leo ‘Bow’ Gistensohn, our leader, didn’t like the way a cop [...] called him ‘sheeny’.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 179: I didn’t know there was a sheenie in the house.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 105: Coon, rebel, ofay, sheeny, you name ’em!
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 21: Someone calls me a Sheeney, I’ll knock em right on their ass.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 200: Sheenie, a Unpleasantly racist term for a Jew (not used in Jewish company).
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 93: One day in May of nineteen twenty I was serving dinner and the first mate [...] said, ‘Hey sheeny, more coffee.’.
1982		W. Wharton Midnight Clear 174: How could a bunch of sheenies put on an entire Christmas scene like that, down to the last candle?
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 105: Mel’s a fucking Jew, sheeny, kike.

2. a pawnbroker.

1871		Galaxy (N.Y.) Oct. 498: A gentleman who is anxious to recover his watch without the trouble of attempting to punish the thief who stole it, has only to [...] trace it to Brandon, and regain it on comparatively favorable terms; for the gentlemanly dealer is not a ‘sheeny,’ but a devout believer in the fine old maxim of ‘live and let live.’.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 176: It ain’t all that the pub’s lost in a year, ’cause a lot o’ stuff that’s swiped has to be sold at a sacrifice, as the Sheenies say.

3. a mean, grasping person.

1872		E. Crapsey Nether Side of NY 87: A gentleman who is anxious to recover his watch [...] has only to insert such an advertisement [...] for the gentlemanly dealer is not a ‘sheeny,’ but a devout believer in the fine old maxim of ‘live and let live.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 253: Sheeny. Mean person.
1948		R. Park Harp in South 58: ‘Ah, Hughie, you’re a mullet-headed sheeny if ever there was one’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

4. (Aus.) a bookmaker.

1900

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 24 Oct. 1/7: Billy Kelso, you have not a Welfare or Argyle [i.e. racehorses] to mow down the Sheeneys with.

5. a derog. term for a person with dark skin, often of Mediterranean origin.

1932		F. Jennings Tramping with Tramps 212: Sheenies – dark-coloured tramps.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 73: Bruno turned on the Greek. ‘Beat it, Sheeny, this is a white man’s party.’.

In derivatives

sheenyish (adj.)

(US) reminiscent of the negative stereotypes of a Jew.

1847

‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries & Miseries of N.Y. 85: His face had a kind of sheneyish expression in which avarice, cunning, cowardice and licentiousness were all so mixed together that they could not be separated.

Sheenyland (n.)

(US) derog. description of the Jewish area of a city, spec., the Lower East Side of NYC.

1955

B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] Sheenieland [...] Pushcart peddlers lined the curbs shouting their wares in Yiddish.

In compounds

sheeny funeral (n.)

(US short order) a pork chop; roast pork.

1912		Tacoma Times (WA) 2 Nov. 3/5: A ‘sheenee funeral’ is an order of pork chops.
1925		Valentine’s Manual 94: ‘White wings, with the sunny side up,’ was translated as eggs fried on one side, and ‘A sheeny funeral with two on horseback,’ was roast pork and boiled potatoes.
1939		J. Keller Ins and Outs 21: They called pork chops without gravy ‘a sheeny funeral with the hearse’.
1995		(con. early 20C) I.L. Allen City in Sl. 98: Some of the lingo voiced the common ethnic prejudices of the day: a black coffee was also one nigger and a sheeny funeral with two on horseback was roast pork and boiled potatoes.

sheeney’s fear (n.)

(UK Und.) bacon.

1889

Clarkson & Richardson Police! 321: Bacon ... Tiger, Sheeney’s fear.

sheeny wagon (n.)

(US) a pedlar’s cart.

1902		quoted in P. Gagan Legend of Fireball Fleming (2007) 36: ‘You are the only one who’s finished the run in a sheeny wagon,’ said one. Jed, unaware of the slight [...] went inside to join the others.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 169: If my Oliver ever worked a sheeny wagon I’ll kiss your ass before God!