Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a derog. term for an Italian.

1835		T.C. Haliburton Clockmaker 111: There’s no such singers anywhere; they beat the Eyetalians a long chalk.
1890		Sacramento Daily Record (CA) 25 May 1/4: I tell ye these Eyetalians is walkin’ right over us.
1898		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley in Peace and War 1: He’s been up again Gladstun an’ Bisma-arck an’ ol’ what-yer-call’im, the Eyetalian.
1908		Wash. Herald (DC) 7 June 8/3: Parker [...] hit the Eyetalian [..] the Eytalian’s monkey [...] made a jump for him.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘Scrap Iron’ in Taking the Count 218: I got my start licking Eyetalians.
1919		Athenaeum 22 Aug. 791: Our army in Italy always spoke of the Italians as the ‘Itis’ (pronounced ‘Eyey-ties’).
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 424: Itis. (Pronounced ‘eye-ties’), Italians.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 308: The signor Brini from Summerhill, the eyetallyano.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 139: In dear old sunny It’ the Eyetalians get their fresh garden peas out of a can.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 90: Eyeties: Italians.
1933		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 40/4: The next mat partner we got was an Eyetalian. He looked something like the heavyweight champ, Carnivorous, only more savage.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 114: Nice gang of boys he’s got working for him at that. Eyetalians, Yiddisher boys.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats viii: Sorry, George. It was chicken-feed. Apart from bringing down that Eyetie, it wasn’t worth watching.
1945		J. Henderson Gunner Inglorious (1974) 47: They said the Ites were dirty and uncivilised.
1946		G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead (1955) 200: Yes, the Ities are getting absolute hell.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 85: Eyeties, said the voice of the Eternal Tourist. Ginsoes. There they are. The Ayrabs of Europe.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 78: We ’ad a Frenchman live next door y’ers ago, or ’e may ’ave bin a Eye-tye.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 230: These are nearly all Ities — only a handful of Huns.
1957		G. Metalious Peyton Place (1959) 305: He was generally referred to [...] as ‘that Eye-tye’.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] The kikes banded in the Long Knives [...] and the Eyetalians stuck together as the Little Hands.
1959		A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 161: These were the rich Eyeties, who didn’t know any better.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 48: He never did any looting like the others. Reckoned the Ites had enough without us making it worse.
1960		(con. c.1928) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 178: ‘The Eyeties’ art is A.1,’ announced Papa.
1960		A. Seymour One Day of the Year I i: The place is full of ’em. Poms and I-ties. Bloody I-ties.
1975		S. Roberts ‘And Never Come Back Again’ Outside Life’s Feast 13: Eyeties were almost as bad as kaffirs.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 92: Yet tonight the Alexandrian moon would bring the Ities over, big diesel-engined Savoia bombers.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 9: We get it right from the eyetalians and cut it our ownselves.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 182: Australian general slang employs a battery of racist phrases such as ‘wog’, ‘bog’, ‘Itie’ and ‘chow’.
1985		E. Leonard Glitz 252: Didn’t matter if he got dumped on or made to look a fool by some Eyetie.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 12: The time-honored tradition of disparaging other nationalities, including the [...] Italians (Eyetalians, macaronis, meatballs).
1990		J. Healy Streets Above Us (1991) 118: Well, we’ve wasted a lot of time here and we still got that brothel case them Eyeties was running from that ice-cream van.
1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] Silly buggers who didn’t like Jews or Ities or other kinds of wogs.
2000		Guardian 13 Apr. 21: Forming a team of what the locals called, with genuine affection, ‘our Eye-ties’.
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] Eyeties? All in Carlton, the eyetalians.
2011		‘Jack Tunney’ Split Decision [ebook] If that greasy eye-tie wants to disrespect me [...] he’s got another think coming.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 240: Shooter owed the Eye-ties money.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 494: [B]last these bloody eyeties.

2. the Italian language.

1886		Belmont Chron. (St Clairsville, OH) 1 Apr. 4/3: They tell me [...] this is an Eye-talian show. Now I can’t talk Eye-talian and don’t understand it.
1905		Minneapolis Jrnl (MN) 29 Mar. 11/4: It ain’t me strong for the guinny game, but we had to have Dominick. He was the only one of us who could parley-voo the Eyetaliano. That’s why they sing it in the dago.
1905		Minneapolis Jrnl (MN) 29 Mar. 11/4: When you get a story so bad you can’t tell it in English [...] just sing it in the Eyetalian.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 111: But y’d think they’d speak some other lingo besides Itie.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 46: Well up to frog. And Spanish. Some Eyetie.