Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) San Francisco; thus Friscoite n., a person from San Francisco.

1851		C.L. Canfield The Diary of a Forty-Niner (1906) 103: Pard went to Frisco early in the week.
1858		C. Abbey diary 9 Sept. in Gosnell Before the Mast (1989) 127: The 2nd mate will leave in ’Frisco.
1865		H.L. Williams Joaquin 3: When ‘Charley the Chief’ couldn’t save ‘Frisco’ from the flames.
1870		B. Harte Luck of Roaring Camp 51: They advised me to send him to Frisco to the hospital, for he was no good to any one, and would be a baby all his life.
1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 51: One of them elevators you hear about in them fust-class hotels down to ’Frisco.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 9/2: But when Alfred the Great Journalist gets a chance to describe the appearance of ‘Six Sanguinely Sweltering Suicides’ the soul of that ’Frisco man will yearn for the dark and dismal solitude of a narrow ‘pine-liner’.
1889		Kipling ‘The Bow Flume Cable-Car’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 10 Sept.(1909) 186: ‘O’Grady went to 'Frisco when the Bow Flume saloon was booming’.
1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 206: I went to Frisco at my own expense.
1894		Mirror of Life 7 Apr. 9/2: For a long time he supplied all the horses needed by the street car lines in ’Frisco.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 1/4: The libel law in ’Frisco seems to be on a solid basis. one paper there [etc.].
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 14: ‘Curly,’ he asked in confidential tones, addressing the man from ’Frisco.
1909		R.A. Wason Happy Hawkins 304: Take the real native-son brand of Friscoite, an’ he’ll tell you ’at Frisco an’ Paradise are sunonomous [sic].
1914		R. Lardner You Know Me Al (1984) 32: I worked against Oakland two times and against Frisco two times.
1924		L. O’Neil ‘Old Salt’ in Dinkum Aussie and Other Poems 147: Would they know him now on the Frisco ’front, / Or even in Adelaide?
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 94 He’s come on from Frisco to set up type.
1938		R. Chandler ‘The King in Yellow’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 55: Know Leopardi in Frisco?
1947		Louis Jordan ‘Ramblin’ Blues’ 🎵 Ah but I hit the greatest town of all, Frantic Frisco / Got me a gal with plenty gold and she just won’t let me go.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 71: The time was coming for me to leave Frisco or I’d go crazy.
1967		Reynolds & McClure Freewheelin Frank 38: Andy, a Frisco Hell’s Angel, chewing on an unlit cigar.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 19: I’m gonna stay in Frisco and stay fucked up.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 99: I want every character of flipside Frisco searching for the Blue Jager Moon.
1999–2000		Guardian Guide 18 Dec.–3 Jan. 167: The celebrated car chase, up and over the hilly Frisco streets.

2. as a nickname, e.g. ’Frisco Bill.

1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 10: ‘If it ain’t Frisco Red,’ exclaimed one prone figure.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 141: I hardly knew the city, it had changed so. Frisco Blackie was my mentor on this occasion.
1939		Rover 18 Feb. 16: ‘Gosh, ’Frisco Bill!’ he whistled.