Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a publican [Luke 18:13: ‘And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner’].

1755		Leeds Intelligencer 3 June 3/2: A Rumour of Peace strikes a Damp on our Publicans and Sinners.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1961		Oshkosh Northwestern (WI) 17 June 9/1: The term ‘publicans and sinners’ is used in holy scriptures to describe the coarse sinner. Publicans [...] were known to be thieves,deceivers, swindlers.

2. an affectionate term for an otherwise unnamed man; usu. prefaced by ‘old’.

1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 319: A thousand broad hints escaped them, intermingled with small favours [...] which were all seasoned exactly to the taste of these old sinners.
1854		J. Pycroft The Cricket Field 247: ‘Cut away, you young sinner,’ said a big fellow.
1911		Pearson’s Wkly 13 Apr. 5/3: ‘I sentence you to three years’ penal servitude.’ ‘Thank you, you ugly old sinner’.
1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 517: There wasn’t a sinner on the whole fuckin’ island, except for themselves.
2018		J.-P. Jordan Joys of War 31: We were surrounded by coarse rocky desert, with not a sinner in sight .