Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also townee, towney) a town-dweller, esp. a Londoner.

1733		Newcastle Courant 21 Apr. 1/1: Gallop a-trott, trott, trott, / And hey for the Newcastle Towny!
1821		‘Song’ in J.L. Stevens Fancy’s Wreath 50: The townie lads sae taunting tell / This ane an’ that bears aff the bell.
1827		P. Cunningham New South Wales II 227: If we could not say we had committed as many [crimes] as these townies, they would look upon us with contempt.
1853		Yale Literary Mag. xix 2: The genus by the German students denominated ‘Philistines’, by the Cantabs ignominiously called ‘Snobs’, and which custom here has named ‘Townies.’.
1867		G.E. Clark Seven Years of a Sailor’s Life 23: Hang on to her, my bold townie.
1892		H. Lawson ‘The Man from Waterloo’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 219: They couldn’t let the towny be — / They sneered like anything.
1893		J. Demarr Adventures in Aus. 71: Two others were Londoners, transported from that city [...] One went by the name of Stewart, and the other was called ‘Towney,’ a name generally given to Londoners.
1903		J. London People of the Abyss 91: ‘I met a “towny,” and he stood me too good a dinner,’ I explained.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Oct. 1/1: He is careful, however, not to bring in any townies who might puncture his flatulence.
1914		E. O’Neill Abortion in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 160: Probably some fresh ‘townie’ who thinks Jack’s indebted to him.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 104: The rest o’ the townies look on her sorter like a witch.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 June 21/2: [T]here was a lantern-jawed bloke gassing about how the townies reckoned themselves smarties.
1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 252: Ten miles is a long way for a towny like me to walk.
1944		Hully Dly Mail 6 Dec. 4/5: Another ‘townie’ and I are ‘mucking in’ on them.
1946		W.L. Gresham Nightmare Alley (1947) 270: The goddamned townies.
1950		S. Murphy Stone Mad (1966) 116: When it comes to knowing everything, he wasn’t in the ha’penny place with a townie of our own.
1968		(con. 1930s) J. Healy Death of an Irish Town 20: The ‘rager shams’ were not supposed to be as smart as us ‘townies.’.
1969		R. Greacen Even without Irene 23: He was a country lad, not a townee versed in sectarian animosity.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 96: The townies have gone.
1983		P. Reading ‘Nips’ in Diplopic 35: Rustics are bumpkins, / Townies are corrupt.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 23: The bushies [...] aren’t as fast at forgiving as the townies.
1993		Aus. Word Map 🌐 townie. someone who lives in town as opposed to someone who lives on a farm: Joe is a townie he doesn't know much about sheep.
1996		A. Close Official and Doubtful 313: A townie’s fantasy of rural bliss.
1998		A. Warner Sopranos 123: ‘What a snotty townie,’ Manda whispered.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 89: Locals have more respect for my boys than some townie.
2010		K. Barry ‘Fjord of Killary’ in New Yorker 24 Jan. 🌐 I was a born townie, and I had made a dreadful mistake in coming here [i.e. North Galway].
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 110: Looked like he worked on a farm even though he was a townie.

2. a fellow townsman.

1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 147: Haven’t your heard all about my poor towny, Jackey Crockfort?
1832		Glover Cradle of Liberty in Southern Planter (MS) 30 June 1/2: mike. [H]earing that there was likely to be war kicked up, between my towneys, and the people of old England [...] [S]ince he’s mess’d with the Knobs and Bigbugs of the ’tother country, I suppose he’ll forget his towneys.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Dec. 2/5: Peggy Oakley, vich are a towny of mine, both of us bein Londoners .
1898		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley in Peace and War 181: A man be th’ name iv Joyce, a towny iv mine.
1914		Portsmouth Eve. News 9 June 5/4: You are a — townie of mine, and if I get my ticket over this, I will wait for you in Edinburgh.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 15: Swale was a townie of yours, wasn’t he, Pritchard?
1933		(ref. to 1890–1910) L.G.D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) 406: Townie – Two men from the same part of England speak of each other as ‘a t. of mine.’.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 232: We had found them voluble, neither bitter nor tongue-tied by the exalted position of their townie who had made it.
1984		(con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] A particular friend, if he was about the same age, was an ‘oppo’. If he was younger, a ‘winger.’ if he was from the same city or area [...] a ‘townie’.

3. (Aus.) a newly arrived immigrant.

1847

[A. Harris] (con. 1820s) Settlers & Convicts 94: How long had I been here? Was I not a Towny too? — ‘An emigrant: here about twelve months, and a Londoner’.

4. (usu. campus/private school, also towney) an inhabitant of the town rather than of the campus/school; also attrib.

1848		Joliet Signal (Joliet, IL) 18 Jan. 1/2: ‘Oh, nothing,’ replied the towney.
1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 462: towney. [...] any young man residing in the town in which the college is situated, who is not a collegian.
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 43: Blind-house, a secret-society hall, so called by the townies only.
1895		J.S. Wood Yale Yarns 54: They gave the college cheer, while Major O’Dowd [...] leading the procession of townies down Chapel from York, on horseback, was naturally furious.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 46: mucker, n. A youthful inhabitant of the vicinity not belonging to the college – a ‘towney.’ [Ibid.] 67: towny, n. A town resident not a student.
1909		Wodehouse Mike [ebook] A howl from the townee, a yell from the policeman, a cheer from the launching party.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 186: On the way they passed the townies who glared at them balefully.
1961		M. Terry Old Liberty (1962) 71: The Red Lattice was a townie place, they didn’t like Liberty boys.
1979		S. King Dead Zone (1980) 14: The townies might bitch about the university crowd with their smart talk and their Commie marches to end the war.
1983		R. Price Breaks 15: I’d picked up a townie in a local beer palace.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 295: Ducking out at night to smoke joints and hook up with townies.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 76: My father ended up mostly with townies from the bars.
[2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Rube — A scornful term for the outsider to show business; also ‘Elmer,’ ‘towner,’ ‘townie,’ [...] ‘hayseed’ or ‘chump’].
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] [T]he type of townies who will go to their graves believing they could do a better job than the pros did [ibid.] [T]he bouncer got the shit kicked out of him by a couple of townie bikers.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 65: [T]he [boarding school] students [...] referred to the local residents as ‘townies’.

5. a paying customer at a carnival, circus, etc; also attrib.

1955

E. Hoagland Cat Man 23: [V]ery soon the townies became convinced that something they must not miss seeing was being done. They pressed forward, closing the passages which the circus men had made [ibid.] 95: Townie sightseeing families in unending succession.

6. a working-class ‘lad’, dressed in sportswear.

2001		Indep. Rev. 11 Dec. 1: Scallies [...] Sportswear-wearing, football-loving toughs who take umbrage at Moshers’ dress. Also known as ‘townies.’.
2004		chavscum.co.uk 🌐 Chavs, Neds, Townies, Kevs, Charvers, Steeks, [...] whatever you know them as, this site is about them, Britains peasant underclass that are taking over our towns and cities!