Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US milit.) lieutenant.

1917		C. Sherwood diary 22 Nov. 🌐 Hiked in A.M. under a first lieuy [i.e. lieutenant] who seemed dippy.
1918		D.G. Rowse Doughboy Dope 21: You find yourself feeling better even before the medical looey has asked you what ‘your trouble is’.
1927		(con. 1914–18) L. Nason Three Lights from a Match 55: There’s a signal corps sergeant here and three orderlies and another looey in the outside cellar.
1932		B.M. Harvey Me and Bad Eye and Slim 125: You are lucky to be a buck private, with nobody over you like a ranking officer to ride hell out of you like a second looie.
1933		‘Paul Cain’ Fast One (1936) 49: He’s the Lou they were waiting for on the boat - so they could let you have it resisting arrest - make it legal.
1942		‘Marienne’ ‘Solid Meddlin’ in People’s Voice (NY) 7 Mar. 33/1: Heppin’ wide-eyed glammah gals to the dif’ between a second lewy and a cropy.
1943		(con. 1860s) B.I. Wiley Life of Johnny Reb 342: I wood rather be corporal in company F of the Texas Rangers than to be first Lieu in a flat foot company.
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 79: Bassett’s talked to the looie who’d get the call at the Chicago station.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 26: Some sonofabitchin’ looey [...] wanted us to get off the goddam ship.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 49: He’s a private and she’s a looey.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 46: He’s put the looeys on me. All the officers of the Scratchers got orders about me and you.
1967		A. Baraka Tales (1969) 8: Jimmy Lassiter, first looie.
1973		L. Shecter On the Pad 230: ‘So I knock on the door of his office, I walk in and I says, ‘Hello, Lew [for lieutenant]’.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 257: The young looies and senior NCOs that had more brains than to go to the field.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 79: He was staring at me the other day, like the second louies used to stare at me when I was in the army.
1983		N. Proffitt Gardens of Stone (1985) 241: I get a-holt of that shithead looey.
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 110: I talked to ‘Short Round,’ a former platoon leader and now a first louie company executive officer in charge of the rear.
2020		L. Lungaro The 3-0 287: he lieutenant held up my personnel folder [...] I felt humbled and had to say, ‘Bronx Robbery Squad, Lou. I learned from the best detectives in the world’.