Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Jewish) a gentile woman.

1872		A. Edersheim Miriam Rosenbaum 78: ‘Levi, is the shickzah* shikkor?**’ remonstrated Mrs. Rosenbaum. [*Shekez literally means abomination, and is in Scripture applied to unclean fish, birds, and other beasts. It is an expression of contempt, chiefly applied to Gentiles. Shickzah is the feminine of it. **Intoxicated with drink].
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day By Day’ in Sporting Times 11 Jan. 3: Bein’ sued for the expenses of a Shiksa’s Kintpatten.
1890		W.J. Birch Shakespeare, Paine et al. 30: The most courteous of slang terms is shakester or shickster, a female. ‘Amongst Jews the word signifies a woman -of shady antecedents (prostitute). Supposed to be derived from the Hebrew Shiktza It is generally pronounced Shickser’.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Jan. 1/1: The brother of a well-known ‘not in-business bookie’ is no slouch at snaring shicksers.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Sept. 1/1: A dandy Hebrew barber [...] lines up to every shicksa at dances and requests a sit-out.
1927		Register (Adelaide) 27 feb. 15/5: He introduces her to her father as a Hebrew girl [...] a girl who is not a ‘shicker’.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 157: Davie’s death stirred anew the scandal of his marriage to a schicksie (Gentile girl).
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 214: She’s too Jewish-looking for you, ha! And maybe I look like a shickseh to you?
1943		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 264: An amorous Jew, on Yom Kippur, / Saw a shiksel—decided to clip her.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 129: He married a W.A.A.F., a Christian girl, a shiksa.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/1: Shiksa. Christian (Jewish, used in derogatory sense).
1958		Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 74: What the hell, she’s only a shicker [...] a shicksy, I’m not sure I’m pronouncing it right — it’s Jewish, means a Gentile girl.
1959		M. Richler Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 80: Jewish girls like it just as much as shiksas.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 70: You run away with some cheap shicksa.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 232: Did our Ephra have an unknown thing for shiksas?
1983		Observer 6 Mar. 32/3: A male goy [...] is a sheygets and his mother a shikse.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 76: Just the two of us, such a beautiful shiksa you are, such a dream.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 295: The shiksa wants half a loaf of sugar.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Mag. 9 Apr. 47: John’s father, a rigorous Jew, refuses to accept his son’s relationship with a ‘shiksa’.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 174: ‘Since when do Jews marry on a Sunday?’ ‘He’s marrying a shiksa [...] a gentile’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 962: ‘[W]e all know shiksas who drowned in their own liquid excitement’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1899

A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 45: T’ree or four veeks ago he picks up vith a shicksa servant-gal on a Sunday afternoon.

3. a non-Jewish servant-girl; thus shabbos/shobbos-shicksa, a gentile servant girl hired to perform such tasks, e.g. lighting fires, that pious Jews may not perform on the Sabbath.

1886		Sporting Times 23 Jan. 1/5: The Talepitcher put everyone at their ease by remarking, ‘This is my shobbos shiksa’.
1890		Amer. Hebrew 28 Nov. 88/2: As misfortunes never come singly, it happened that the Schikseh (A Christian girl who is engaged by several households to attend to the fire during the Sabbath), was away on her rounds.
1901		A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 131: He had got up o’ mornings (since they kept no shiksa) and boiled the coffee.
1919		Jewish Guardian (London) ‘Leaves from a Yiddish Lexicon’ 31 Oct. 9/2: A less complimentary term applied to young or unmarried Gentiles is ‘Shygetz,’ the feminine of which, ‘Shikse,’ is the customary term for a servant girl.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 200: Schikse Slightly derogatory Yiddish term for a non-Jewish girl domestic servant or shop assistant.
1977		P.-D. Uys Paradise is Closing Down in Gray Theatre One (1978) 152: Here I am. Molly Mashuga with as her best friends, a Boer and a Shiksa.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 10: All I gotta call you is a dumb shiksa.

4. (Aus.) a girl(friend), a young unmarried woman.

1900–10

Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 10: BARTS obsolescent old Sydney larrikin slang: girls, young unmarried females: [...] SYNS – shicksa, clinah, donah, rabbit, moll, cat.