Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. glasses, spectacles.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 370: He advised him to remember Mr Green Specs.
1822		Tom and Jerry; A Musical Extravaganza II iv: Buff it hard against the gentleman with specks.
1833		C.A. Davis Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 112: There lay the specs on the floor (or what there was left on ’em).
1840		R. Barham ‘The Knight and the Lady’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1847) 273: He wore green ‘specs,’ with a tortoiseshell rim.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 191: He always wears green specks, sir.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 3 Feb. 3/2: With both the flesh full of grog, and t’other skin full of cash, he again wiped his specs and departed.
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 5 July n.p.: He arose from his chair, and at the same time shoving up his spects.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 141: Now for the silver specs!
1864		W.R. Floyd Handy Andy in Darkey Drama 5 65: If I hadn’t my specs on I shouldn’t believe I heerd aright.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 52: Them specs sticks to that nose o’ his’n like a squir’l to a knot!
1882		‘’Arry on a Jury’ in Punch 15 Apr. 177/1: Lively lot we all looked the next day, with our eyes dim as grandmother’s specs.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 43: I gave him his sermons and specks back.
1894–5		H. Lawson ‘Taking Stiffner Down’ in Roderick (1972) 129: ‘Ask the man with the spec’s’ [...] Of course there was no man with spectacles.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 97: His wife [...] looked at him through her Specs and shook her Head.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When Woman’s Tongue Wags’ Sporting Times 25 July 1/4: And I can’t say there’s overmuch pleasure about, / When the missis puts on her blue specs, / And begins, in her shrillest soprano, to spout / Of the rights and wrongs of her sex.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 374: specks, n. spectacles.
1913		A. Irvine My Lady of the Chimney Corner 187: I begun t’ clane m’ specs.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 344: She was squinting at Gerty, half smiling, with her specs, like an old maid.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 248: Lord I can’t keep mad at you when you take your specs off.
1938		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ Apr. n.d. [synd. col.] If the specs have any gold in them, the stranger can sell it for a few coins.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 334: He throwed his eyes out over the rims of some two-bit specks.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 42: You’re wearing specs awright, but you ain’t no doc.
1951		C. Willingham ‘Excitement in Ergo’ in Gates of Hell (1966) 176: Yaller, spec-wearing, burr-headed, panty-waisted niggers.
1958		Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 26: Keen masters are usually super weeds with specs.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 157: If [...] a guy with specks asks for me today, take him down to the basement and punch him in the mouth.
1964		P. Larkin ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ in Whitsun Weddings 31: Later, with inch-thick specs / Evil was just my lark.
1971		N. Smith Gumshoe (1998) 55: Perched on that aforementioned hooter she wore what you call granny specs.
1985		Beano Comic Library No. 79 29: Me see better with specs on!
1999		Indep. Rev. 13 Oct. 4: Ditching the NHS-style goggles for thin, steel-rimmed specs.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 16: She’s whipping off the specs, shaking down her hair.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 24: ‘It could be me, in those specs’.
2012		J. Fagan Panopticon 22: He’s got curly hair and thick specs and he’s skinny as fuck.

2. a nickname for one who wears glasses.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 19 Nov. n.p.: the whip wants to knowIf W. has left his yellow mistress and child or does he love her as well as ever? Go it specks.
1926		E.P. Norwood Other Side of the Circus 58: There was ‘Specs,’ who wore glasses.
1935		N. Algren Somebody in Boots 180: He took Specs by the lapel, and the boy dropped the book.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 43: Say, Specs, why don’t you just pertend you are a doc?