Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a euph. for sonofabitch n.; note extrapolated female form in cit. 1908

1708		in British Apollo II (1726) 379: You Apollo’s son, / You’re a son of a gun, / Made up with bamboozle, / You directly I'll puzzle.
1787		T. Row in Gentleman’s Mag. LVII 38/2: Son of a gun means neither more nor less than a soldier’s brat, and is, doubtless, as Mr Green’s learned friend suggests, often used jocularly.
1817		W. Scott Search after Happiness in The Sale-Room V 1 Feb. xiv: He had wit him one damn son-gun, Rogue I no like.
[1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 163: Son of a gun — a soldier’s bastard].
1828		Lytton Pelham II 121: ‘Harkye! you d--d son of a gun!’ cried Mr. Gordon.
1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 162: I should now have to march back again [...] without flogging a single son-of-a-gun of ’em.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Smuggler’s Leap’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 162: Ho! ho! the old tub-gauging son of a gun.
1848		‘Jumping Over a Bear’ Spirit of the Times 30 Dec. (N.Y.) 535: He boasted that he could not be ‘tuk in and did for’ by any son of a gun of them all.
1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 73: Out of the cabin, ye canting, drab-coloured son of a wooden gun.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 245: I don’t want a canting son of a gun for my pal.
1861		Hills & Plains 2 149: ‘It is a pity to see so fine a girl tied to such an ugly “son of a gun”’.
1868		J.D. McCabe Secrets of the Great City 391: Snatchem asked our reporter if he ever saw such ‘a rough-and-tumble-stand-up-to-be knocked-down son of a gun as he in his life’.
1876		J. Miller First Fam’lies in the Sierras 111: I don’t ’low no white-livered son of a gun to go about a-talking about a woman like that.
1880		F. Remington letter in Splete Sel. Letters (1988) 27: If any son-of-a-gun says they are not the ‘daisy thing’ he never breathed the fumes.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Apr. 9/3: Afghans are nice people in pictures, and I dare say splendid patriots. But there is no question but that the mantle of Ishmael has descended in multiplicate upon those – sons of guns, I was going to say.
1892		in Punch 3 Dec. 255: O Sol, you old son of a gun!
1894		Comet (TN) 1 Nov. 3/6: That pigeon-toed, box-ankled, knock-kneed, son-of-a-gun of a thief.
1895		in Sydney Worker Feb. n.p.: Painted by him I am a narrow, bigoted, snuffle-busting son of a gun whose grog blossomed ‘conk’ gives the lie to his watery protestations.
1900		Sporting Times 10 Feb. 2/5: Sea cook’s son, son of a gun, son of a horse-marine, / Type of a carping renegade, with nothing good to say.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Jan. 4/8: Hello! / You son of forty guns.
1908		N.Z. Truth 3 Nov. 8/6: Guessing should be pretty brisk if some lop-eared son-of-a-gun doesn’t discover that this harmless [...] form of amusement isn’t contrary to the [...] Dead Dog Act.
1908		Sporting Times 16 May 1/1: Would it be correct to describe the female Bluebeard, Mrs. Gunness, as a ‘daughter of a gun’?
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 106: There’s somebody thinks as I do of the crawling old son of a gun.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 152: One son of a gun tickled the back of my neck with a bullet.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 86: When that cross-eyed son of a gun Young Baxter fought that fake down at ’Oxton.
1922		Detroit Free Press (MI) 29 Oct. 104/3: ‘Flukes an flames! [...] ye canting drab-colored son of a wooden gun’.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 69: No, he don’t listen to me but he follows that rat-faced sonofagun, Issie Weingrad.
1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 166: Well de hen-fired son-of-a-gun done slipped off and never tole me good bye agin!
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 90: He was a cold-hearted tough son-of-a-gun.
1942		C. Himes ‘Lunching at the Ritzmore’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 17: You would just ignore the ‘fat sonsaguns’ who entered the Ritzmore.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 83: He was a mean bast . . . son-of-a-gun.
a.1963		‘The Fall’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 83: No son-of-a-gun would this whore shun / Who could pay to use his rod.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 64: He picked up his hat and pulled to his feet—/ a job well done, you sonofagun—/ and then he went sashaying down the street.
1971		T. Lewis Plender [ebook] ‘The wife? You married?’ He punched me on the arm again. ‘You old son of a gun’.
1976		H. Selby Jr Demon (1979) 99: Went baby boy, you old son of a gun.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 366: The large number of euphemisms that were devised for it (such as S.O.B., from ca. 1850, so-and-so, sonofa, son of a b., son of a sea cook, son of a gun).
1998		A. Warner Sopranos 111: White horses are not a nautical term, you son of a gun.
2000		Eminem ‘Under the Influence’ 🎵 Born straight up out a pussy but a son of a gun / Got a reputation for havin’ niggas run up they funds.
2003		J. Lethem Fortress of Solitude 457: Did away with himself, poor crazy son of a gun.
2011		‘Jack Tunney’ Split Decision [ebook] Round three, though, the son of a gun tried to lace me.