Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a fool, a simpleton; thus used as a derog. term of address.

c.1785		‘Dog and Duck Rig’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 79: Till she meets with a spoony that’s nutty.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: spoony a foolish pretending fellow.
1800		Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 26/2: Lord Spooney presented me with two guineas for the new flash song.
1812		T.H. ‘Punch’s Apotheosis’ in Smith Rejected Addresses 124: When spooneys on two knees implore the aid of sorcery.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 59: Then, yield thee, youth, – nor such a spooney be, / To think mere man can mill a Deity!
1827		J.M.F. Wright Alma Mater I 218: Now that year it so happened that the spoon was no spooney.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 75: What spoonies you are! you should have had a drag to whisk off the swag in.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 214: ‘You talks nonsense, you spooney!’ cried a robber of note.
1833		H. Smith Gale Middleton 1 148: [I] larnt how to floor an ox afore even I join’d the milling coves and larnt how to floor a spoony.
1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 242: The husband is invariably a spooney.
1840		Sydney Gaz. 29 Sept. 2/4: [W]e were called (we hope our readers will excuse us for inserting the low slang terms of our cotemporary [sic]) spooneys, sucking jackasses, and many other names.
1842		N.Y. Aurora 8 Apr. n.p.: They [i.e. waitresses] always draws the spooneys in, / Who stare and grin upon ’em.
1843		Comic Almanack May 363: Spoonies as they are, I never seed ’em makin such preshious hasses of themselves.
1845		J. Pycroft Collegian’s Guide 118: Not a few of this party were deluded into a belief that [...] all men of courtesy and good-breeding [were] spoonies.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Sept. 3: Where? why there, course, spoony, else I shundt have seen it.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 36: By following this plain direction, the stranger in New York will save his money and avoid being obliged to regard himself as a fool and a spooney.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 1 Jan. n.p.: ‘The spoony leaves us and our joys / For fear he’ll be locked out!’.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 49: Why, she’s the Union nurse, spooney.
1860		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 18 Aug. 8/2: I would advise this spooney to save a little of his money.
1863		‘Kate Mooney’ Donnybrook-Fair Comic Songster 49: Wasn’t I a spooney, / Och hone! to grunt and groan, / And all for Katty Mooney.
1869		‘Oliver Optic’ Switch Off 212: Some of the fellows thought Wolf was a ‘spoony’ on that eventful occasion; but, for my part, I regarded his behavior with intense admiration.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 237: Can’t you see it ain’t open yet, spooney?
1880		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 2 Oct. 19/2: An’ onct were considered a booty / Wen the spoonies come sparkin’ around .
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 22/2: The tourist he laughed till he cried at poor Bob / Bewailing his fate with many a sob; / Told him to ‘dry up’ and not be a spooney, / As tresses as good could be purchased with money.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 223: Spoon, Spoony. A simpleton, noodle.
1900		Sporting Times 23 June 2/2: He’s a spoony, and a loony, and a proper bookies’ mark.

2. a coward.

1815		T. Moore ‘Epistle from Tom Cribb to Big Ben’ in Morn. Chron 31 Aug. 3: Out, cowardly spooney!
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 40: You’re a spooney.
1926		Potter Enterprise (Coudersport, PA) 1 Apr. 4/2: Elizabeth shrieked with laughter. ‘Listen to Blair, he a spooney!’.

3. one who is in sentimental love.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 324: But while you both mug me together, / You’ll make me a spooney (Hiccoughing) I say.
1836		Bell’s Wkly Messenger 11 Dec. 398/1: She was a good girl, a very good girl [...] She made a spooney of me.
c.1840		‘“Taking Off” of Prince Albert’s Inexpressibles’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 36: I was fool enough to let this old spooney have some cloth.
1842		W. Tait Magdalenism 6: [footnote] The word cowly is a cant term used by prostitutes to denote a lover of a particualr description/ It is never applied to their spoony or fancy man, but to all other who pay their addresses.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) III iv: You don’t mean to say you’ve been doing the spooney—what you call making love?
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Apr. 47/2: She told me this morning that she thought you a stupid puppy [Hopes of the Spooney are blighted].
1856		G.G. Foster N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 73: Among the men you would find [...] judges and juvenile delinquents [...] Gamblers and fancy men, high-flyers and spoonies, genteel pick-pockets and burglars.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 224: spooney a weak-minded and foolish person, effeminate or fond.
1860		Melbourne Punch 9 Aug. 7/1: ‘Slangiana’ [...] My darling duck, what is’t you say? / You’ll be your fondest spooney’s joy.
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 21 Feb. 5/1: Little Annie's Spoony.— a love ballad warbled with immonse success by Miss Annie Ansdown.

4. (Aus./US) a womanizer.

1863		Criminal Life (NY) 19 Dec. n.p.: Parents [...] keep a sharp lookout [for] those two spoonies Jack Kempton and Dick Gaul [...] Jack Kempton had better look out or he will get his nose disjointed, and Dick Gaul served in the same manner.
1911		Sport (Adelaide) 25 Nov. 8/4: ‘Spoony' has left the district for Murray Bridge. What will the nice little girls do now?

5. an effeminate young man, poss. homosexual.

1907		Gem 30 Mar. 7: He [...] resolved to make the ‘spooney’ sit up for it when he could get at him.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 188: spooney (Brit) effeminate acting heterosexual.