Green’s Dictionary of Slang

swanky n.²

1. table beer, weak beer.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 32: Swankey – swipes, table beer.
1845		Sporting World 19 Apr. 50/1: Forty to fifty Irish tailors, who carouse deeply in a description of small beer called swanky.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 28 Oct. 2/6: Extensive imbibings of Jamaica or Colonial swanky at the ‘Jenny Lind’ hotel.
1849		Paul Pry 19 Mar. 1/2: [W]e entered the Prince of Wales beershop [...] not so much from a desire to test the quality of the landlord's ‘swankey,’ as by reason of a bill which we saw in the window.
c.1851		‘New Beer House Act’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 92: A place for the sale of beer, wine, ale, cider, or swankey.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 105: SWANKEY, cheap beer.
1862		Star (Ballarat, Vic.) 7 Apr. 4/1: Scrase Brothers, Neave, Cohn Brothers, and all the other firms dealing in what is vulgarly known by the different slang names of ‘sheoak,’ ‘colonial swankey,’ ‘long sleeve,’ &c.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 12/1: The latter gift [£2] is worth, in Sydney, 160 long beers, in the country only 80, but at some local hostelries will earn 240 ‘swankies.’.
1888		N. Devon Jrnl 10 May 6/6: ‘Swanky’ is the title given to a certain beer brewed at Pittsburg. It contains only 2½ per cent of alcohol.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 29: As this larikin usally termed it, [i.e. beer] ‘swanky,’ or ‘stringy bark.’ [Ibid.] 135: The ‘swanky’ was sixpence per pint.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Nov. 10/1: Where is the public meeting of gassy water-drinkers to protest against Premier Lyne’s invocation of a champagne flood [...] for the throats of the upper tier of the coming guests, and innumerable tanks of swankey for the visiting Tommies? [Ibid.] 14/1: Let every man his pewter grip, / And toast the word in ‘swankey.’ / Now – altogether! Give it lip! – / Hoo – blanky – ray for ‘Blanky!’.
1910		N.Z. Truth 16 Mar. 7/8: The swankey is given away with the oysters.
1913		N.Z. Truth 20 Dec. 1/5: The flour-man had to swipe down a gallon or so of swanky after his dry feat.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 229: Of course, there is small beer or [...] swankey, slumgullion, and swipes.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Aug. 10/3: The Syrian swankey-seller.
1904		Truth (Brisbane) 10 Apr. 5/1: [S]ome of the lowest swankey shops in the southern hemisphere.
1907		N.Z. Truth 26 Jan. 6/8: It struck her that a hot grill qwould steady her nerves and mop up some of her swankey ballast.

In derivatives

swankiness (n.)

drunkenness.

1910

Eve. Post (Wellington) 30 Apr. 7/3: Martin had been twice previously convincted for swankiness.

In compounds

swanky ken (n.)

a cheap public house, selling second-rate drink.

1844

New Sprees of London 16: This was a Jerry-shop, or swanky ken; a regular rot-gut shop, a duce a nob to be chiselled and poisoned.

swanky-jerker (n.)

a barmaid.

1906

Sun. Times (Perth) 17 June 1/1: A Midland junction swanky-jerker is dazzling the eyes of the workshops [and] a shunter has got the girl fever in a very bad way.