Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. Irish.

1824		History of Gaming Houses & Gamesters 40: Augustus figured away as a bludegon-man, beoming the leader in many a Paddy-row.
1831		Satirist (London) 14 Aug. 151/1: Sir Samuel Falkner— a Paddy Baronet.
1886		Washington Standard (Olympia, WA) 30 June 6/2: ‘There’s my niece, as dacent a reared little girl as ever crossed the water [...] the “Paddy girl”’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 343: I chaffed the Paddy boys well.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 60: [H]his game is to [...] make his bargain with the gentleman much as he would with a Paddy jarvey.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 234: Listen in the next time there is some bought-and-paid-for Paddy broadcasting for the BBC.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 64: She’s bound to be clobbered by her paddy daddy for being so late.
1986		B. Geldof Is That It? 204: But what about the Paddy accent.
2000		Observer Screen 20 Feb. 6: It was called ‘The Paddy Factor’. That’s the slang term the police and armed forces used when they suspect Irish terrorist involvement.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 35: He watches the old Paddy motherfucker.

2. (US black, also patty) white.

1954		W.G. Smith South Street 99: The jive put down by Claude and me is strictly boot stuff, got to be. You can’t dig it [...] You Paddy-talk, you can’t blow with Caldonia.
1961		J.A. Williams Night Song (1962) 153: How’s he makin’ it with his paddy chick?
1962		(con. 1950s) H. Simmons Man Walking On Eggshells 22: A jive-time base in Virginia, where a lot of paddy studs still didn’t know that boots were human.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 83: I noticed most of the paddy kids were dancing the mambo like stiff.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 164: Humping their asses off for the paddy pimp Toronto Tony.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 93: He was a paddy long hair blondey like dude.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 242: You know what ah likes best about patty chicks? They give good haid.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 171: Rat bastard punk [...] I’ll kill your Paddy gavacho ass.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 122: The Mex type took the lead [...] Two paddy Feds followed close.