Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a form of address to a man whose proper name one does not know.

1864		E. Wardley Confessions of Wavering Worthy 132: They addressed you as ‘Mate,’ or ‘Old Man,’ ‘Mister,’ or some other disrespectfully familiar epithet derived from your dress or person.
1886		‘Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective’ in Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 15/2: You were seen to take it, Mister Man!
1908		‘Old Sleuth’ Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 115: I [have] some valuable information for you, Mister Man, and now throw up your hands.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 521: ‘Let that alone, you fool,’ I growled in his ear. ‘Sure, mister,’ he said, and the next second we were in the thick of it.
1925		D. Hammett ‘The Gutting of Couffignal’ Story Omnibus (1966) 23: Mister, they didn’t none of ’em come down that way.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 607: He was just calmly puffing at a fag, and that, mister, was Studs Lonigan.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 90: ‘You got a good safe?’ ‘Mister, in this business are the best safes money can buy.’.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 220: Hey, Mister [...] You’re getting a flat tire.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 7: Look, mister [...] I’m in no mood to play games.
1979		Fantastic Four Annual 57: Mister, you just don’t know how dangerous!
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 119: [T]he word boss epitomised everything we hated about being in jail and it was significant that the term was never used in Paremoremo, where screws were always addressed as ‘Mister’.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘Happy Returns’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Oh thanks mister.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 155: Mister, Dukey was a dreamer.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 117/2: mister n. a common title for a male prison officer, or any male working in the prison, e.g. a psychiatrist, a social worker, etc.

2. used of a homosexual man considered neither pleasant nor attractive.

1988

A. Hollinghurst Swimming-Pool Library (1998) 66: It was all a game, any man in the least attractive being dubbed a ‘she’ and only males too dire for such a conceit being left an unadorned ‘he’ or, occasionally, sinisterly, ‘mister’ – as in the poisonous declaration ‘I trust you won’t be seeing Mister Elizabeth Arden again’.

3. (US drugs) heroin [heroin is a ‘masculine’ drug; see boy n.² (1)].

1997

Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 62: They called it ‘girl’ or ‘Jane’ or ‘Missy’ in feminine contrasts to ‘boy’ or ‘John’ or ‘Mister’ for king heroin.