Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a direct term of address; intimacy is not mandatory.

1892		Albert Chevalier ‘Our Little Nipper’ 🎵 ’E calls ‘mother ‘Sally,’ And ‘father ‘good old pally’.
1938		J. O’Hara Hope of Heaven 135: ‘All right, pallie, you don’t have to put salt in the wound’.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 7: Well, pally, they will be billing me for stealing all their writing paper.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 252: ‘She’s a whore!’ ‘Sure, pally.’.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 80: No ‘Aw’, pally. I’m not kidding around.
1962		A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 4: To hell with work. Work [...] where does it get you? Not me, pally.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 160: Later, Pally, I don’t know you.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 31: Catch on, Pally?
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 136: You know where’s the Swiss Cottage Roundhouse, pally?
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 43: This may not be the equivalent, perhaps, of a precise dating of the Magdalen Papyrus; but hey, pallie, after twenty years’ searching, it is no matter of mean potatoes, either.
2001		C. Stella Eddie’s World 102: I want that report before you take the ten, pally.
2003		C. Stella Charlie Opera 171: In case you don’t get it yet, pally, I’m not too concerned.