Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a citizen, spec. of London.

1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 20 11–18 Oct. 175: And so did this Wife and Peaceable Citt quietly depart both from his evil Wife, and the shame of owning so dishonourable an Act.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 337: My flock-pated Cit was gone to tell his friends.
1671		‘L.B.’ New Academy of Complements 257: But yet those Citts are subtil slaves, / Most of them Wits, and knowing Knaves.
1684		A Character of London-Village 2: The Coffee House, the Rendez-vous of Wits, Is a Compound of Gentlemen and Cits.
1697		M. Pix Innocent Mistress I i: Then if a foolish cit does not take compassion, [...] dies an old maid, despised and forgotten.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Citt, for Citizen.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:10 6: Among the rest, were booted Cits, / Mounted on Galloppers and Tits.
1709		R. Steele Tatler No. 33 n.p.: These rascally Cits— ’Ounds, why should there not be a Tax to make these Dogs widen their Gates?
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 9: Cit puts his Sword on without Temple-Bar, / To go to White-Hall a Gallanting.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 106: Dull Cit, and thick-skull’d Aldermen arise.
1741		W. Kennett ‘Armour’ in Potent Ally 1: All ye Nymphs [...] Known by White-apron, bart’ring Love with Cit.
1759		Memoirs of the celebrated Miss Fanny M-. 68: He dressed beyond any cit [...] and was the envy of all her followers.
1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 170: Then to be joined to a sneaking slovenly cit; a paltry, prying, pitiful pin-maker!
1768		T. Newburgh ‘The beau walk’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 319: For shame, ye Cits [...] / Fill up your Dikes and purge th’unwholesome Air.
1775		Sheridan Rivals (1776) Epilogue: The cit – well skilled to shun domestic strife – / Will sup abroad; – but first – he’ll ask his wife.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1790		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Epistle to a Falling Minister’ Works (1794) II 217: What ministerial wight that bribes each Cit.
1800		E. Lysaght ‘Song’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 582: How justly alarm’d is each Dublin cut, / That he’ll soon be transform’d to a clown, Sir.
1805		‘Jeremy Swell, Gent.’ Tailors’ Revolt 6: White Conduit-House, / Well known resort for cits and folks in trade.
1812		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Picturesque (1868) 102/1: I pray thee tell me what has wit / To do with any plodding cit!
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 162: Flashy cits, / Numerous wits.
1825		Egan Life of an Actor 76: A wag loquacious, long a well known cit.
1833		‘London, at Twelve at Night’ Fun Alive O! 24: Sober Cits are homeward hieing – noisy bucks in revels vieing.
1844		New Sporting Mag. (London) Dec. 9: The vulgar cit could not be the highly talened Nimrod.
1844		Limerick Reporter (Ireland) 14 May 2/6: It being so fine a day, thousands of our Cits were attracted to the Cove and its harbour.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 41: Then here is the dainty cit, his boots so nicely black, and his shirt-bosom so unimpeachably white.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 139: Two excellent inns at Paramatta, which must be chiefly supported by the jaunting cits of Sydney.
1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: What a come down for a Cadet. Charley you once said you wouldn’t be a common ‘Cit,’ and now you are an errand boy.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 9: Some bulky cit, taking the air with his rib.
1867		Sportsman 23 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] Could the Lord Mayor not have contrived to put these unhappy ‘cits’ [...] on the same footing as the ‘distinguished guests?’.
1877		‘Town Bellman and Crier’ Laughing Songster 91: I’m nicked ‘the town bore,’ with the ring in his nose, / By each envious cit and suburber.
1886		M.E. Braddon Mohawks I 79: The travelled cit who has been exploring all sorts of savage places in Spain and Italy.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 15 Apr. 4/6: A bobby’s oath, / is Christian troth, / Won’t be believed before a cit’s.
1908		C. Rook London Side-Lights 27: A hundred years ago the ‘cit’ was distinct from the ‘buck,’ and London was big enough to contain many warring peoples.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 174: I can’t be enthusiastic over smug cits like Jack Elder.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 406: That, sir, was once a prosperous cit.
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 151: As a new-comer in the township, as a cit, and a devotee to beer, Cummings was hailed with interest .
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 53: The little docile cit who slips home by the six-fifteen to a supper of cottage pie and stewed tinned pears.
1939		D. Carr ‘Some Annapolis Sl.’ in AS XIV:1 77: cit. A civilian.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1972		K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 43: The most urbane cit is, in his inner heart, a yeoman farmer.
1982		J. Atkins Sex In Lit. IV 15: One can understand the aristocratic contempt for the careful, prudish, puritanical cit.

2. (US) a city.

1894

S. Crane in N.Y. Press Nov. in Stallman (1966) 106: Entire Republican ticket, cit and State?