ofay, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

ofay n.

also fay, fey

[ety. unknown. Links to Fr. au fait, aware, have been dismissed (though Cohen (ed.), Studies in Slang (1997), sees this as the proper ety.), and doubts are also cast on Yoruba ofe, ‘a charm that lets one jump so high as to disappear’, thus trouble (the cause of such vanishing), thus a white man (the essence of trouble); note Mezzrow & Wolfe, Really the Blues (1946): ‘Ofay, of course, is pig Latin for foe.’ (Cohen rejects this – ‘there is no indication of blacks ever engaging in the Pig Latin type of word play’); the ety. suggested in cit. 1928 has not been offered elsewhere]

(US) a usu. derog. term for a white person.

1899		Freeman (Indianapolis) 2 Sept. 5/5: London Letter [...] All the boys seem to like this side of th [sic] water... Jiw-wauks [? jig-walks] are scarce, but O-fays are plentiful.
1920		Afro American 15 Oct. 9/4: Mr. Editor, I think it would be a good idea to warn our people through your publication of this Northern ofay’s (so-called white) boast how easily he is getting rich off the profits to be made from our people.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 6: Darkey’s gonna move in there to-morrer an fays jes’ ain’t gon’ stand fo’ it. [Ibid.] 299: fay, ofay: a person who, as far is known, is white. Fay is said to be the original term and ofay a contraction of ‘old’ and ‘fay’.
1931		S. Brown ‘New St. Louis Blues I’ in Botkin Folk-Say 119: Dey got some ofays, but dey mostly got de Jews an’ us.
1934		H. Sebastian ‘Negro Sl. in Lincoln University’ in AS IX:4 288: pale (also peck; pink). A white person. Sometimes used in lieu of the more general Negro term for whites, o’fay or fey.
1938		N.E. Eliason ‘Some Negro Terms’ in AS XIII:2 152/1: Fay: a white person.
1940		‘Here & There’ in N.Y. Age 24 Aug. 10/4: What local lad was fired [...] because he happened to be escapading with a fay? [ibid.] 19 Oct. 10/5: Is it necessary for a colored girl to have a ‘fay’.
1941		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 29 Nov. 20/1: Dr Binga Diamond [...] might add ofay Mildred Hocaveg as the fourth Mrs to become a part of his Strivers Row abode.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 135: There’s ten ofays who pretend they want to be chummy.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 23: Hincty little ofay is Harlemese for snooty little white girl.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 92: It wasn’t a case of one of those know-it-all ofays who wanted to tell him, or contradict without adequate knowledge.
1967		K. Kolb Getting Straight 95: I got so tired of all those fays and gays jammin’ each other.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 176: She’s the only cool ’fay down there.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 31 I’d rather have a dozen wife-in-laws, if they’re black, than one ofay.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 91: Them niggers [...] just beat on me and said, ‘Can’t take it, can you, ofay?’.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 291: Some Deep South ofay with a hard-on for blacks.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 170: The car got a paint job — kuastom nigger script: Allah Rules/Death to Ofays/We Love Malcolm X.
2005		J.E. Lawson Last Burn in Hell 17: To most of the African American women here I’m just an MO, Motherfuckin’ Ofay.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 47: Stewart winked at the ofay.

In phrases

black fay (n.)

(US black) a black person considered subservient to whites.

1964		PADS 42 29: Black fay is applied to the modern counterparts of Uncle Tom.
1994		C. Major Juba to Jive 39: Black fay (o’fay) a term used to accuse a black person of acting like a white person. To some lesser degree the term was also used to refer to a black person who acted in a meek or servile or subservient manner in the presence of whites.