Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) cheeky, arrogant, one who refuses to ‘know their place’; esp. as uppity nigger, a black person who refuses to accept his or her second-class status.

1881		J.C. Harris Uncle Remus 86: Hit wuz wunner deze yer uppity little Jack Sparrers, I speck.
1900		Marvel 15 May 14: Why, Mandy, don’t get uppy.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 27: Hully gee! but musical acts are getting uppity.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 14: ‘Need’n git uppity ’bout it,’ mumbled Jinx sullenly.
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 822: At Vassar the girls she knew were better dressed than she was and had uppity finishing school manners.
1944		W. Blair Tall Tale America 161: This uppity young tenderfoot that had got himself educated at Yale.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 125: We gotta burn the son of a bitch like an uppity Nigra.
1961		(con. WW2) R. Poole London E1 (2012) 209: ‘Don’t get uppity with me, else I’ll soon spit in your eye’.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 23 Aug. in Proud Highway (1997) 392: The Latins are quick [...] to throw it in your face if you get uppity.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 216: They put me in that bourgeoisie thing [...] say well, I’m an uppity nigger.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 41: She and her partners makin’ fun o’ me [...] how I’z uppity and all dat.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] An uppity cunt of a screw who has just [...] confiscated your works.
1998		D. Remnick King of the World 157: For Jimmy Cannon he [i.e. Muhammad Ali] was, pardon the expression, an uppity nigger.
1999		Indep. Rev. 30 June 2: I don’t like computers to get all judgemental and uppity and think themselves superior to us.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 195: Kill that uppity-ass Puddin, who could be serious trouble.
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 65: I’m already sick of uppity perverts.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 105: Right, you uppity fucking coon, don’t be thinking you can breeze into my fucking yard.

2. (also ip-de-dee, uppity-up, upty-up) snobbish, elitist.

1916		H.L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap 126: One of them real upty-up weddings in high life.
1917		S. Lewis Job 298: ‘[S]ince you’ve taken to earning your living again you’ve become so ip-de-dee and independent’.
1933		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 16 Mar. [synd. col.] All have a graciousness toward those who serve that is seldom seen in uppity cafes.
1939		J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath (1951) 300: They was a fella had been uppity, an’ he nearly fainted when this fella come in with a plug hat on.
1941		C.S. Johnson Growing Up in the Black Belt 24: ‘The folks say that I’m uppity since I don’t associate with the children’.
1961		C. Himes Pinktoes (1989) 135: She’s so uppity I ain’t never been asked [to her parties].
1973		in C. Browne Body Shop 62: You can make it in football if you’re from an uppity-up family.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 151: I’m one crook who has shaken hands with more heavyweights [...] than most uppity NSW lawyers will get to meet in a lifetime.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 20: She was one of these uppity, educated girls [...] she thought she was better than him.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 11: Something had to be done about those uppity ladies.

3. promiscuous in a fig. sense, generalized, merchandised.

1981

G. Tate ‘Knee Deep in Blood Ulmer’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 17: The Funk has gotten uppity and gone ‘universal’ on the everyday brothers and sisters, contaminating realms long defunked, namely black and white bohemia.