Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. ostentatious, affected, effeminate.

1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 178: ‘You tell ’em, dearie,’ commanded Old Aunty Beach-Bütsch in her affected high-pitched campy voice.
1942		‘Private Maxie Reporting’ in A. Bérubé Coming Out Under Fire (1990) 91: We’ve got glamor and that’s no lie; / Can’t you tell when we swish by? / Isn’t it campy? Isn’t it campy?
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 5: campy Very gay, with humorous connotation. Mostly a BCN [British Commonwealth of Nations] term.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 2 May in Proud Highway (1997) 512: That a man with such a high white sound should be so hung up in this strange campy kind of showbiz.
1972		E. Newton Mother Camp 111: Campy queens are very often said to be ‘bitches’ just as camp humor is said to be ‘bitchy’.
1976		Russo ‘Camp’ in Levine Gay Men (1979) 205: There is a church [...] which has come to be known, in limited circles, as a ‘campy place to go to church’.
1980		A. Maupin More Tales of the City (1984) 36: An A-Gay who turned campy [...] would find himself banished.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 164: It was exactly the sort of campy junkmobile that some dumb Yuppie would love.
1999		Guardian Guide 12–18 June 30: Trade was death to campy, kitschy gay nitelife.
2000		Guardian Travel 29 July 2: Here they look perfectly appropriate, and the English Riviera shtick seems pretty apt, if a little campy.
2003		T. Dorsey Stingray Shuffle 303: Playboy Jack Murphy, portrayed by Robert Conrad in the delightfully campy Murph the Surf.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 39: The campy grindhouse gore and crime onscreen paled in comparison with the action [...] on ‘the deuce’.

2. (US black) extremely close-knit, happy, cheerful and free-spirited to the point of infuriating one’s companions.

1996–2000

(con. 1940s) Deuce Ofay Productions ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Campy: adj. Extremely close-knit, happy, gay and free-spirited to the point of sickening others.