Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a disc jockey.

1959		Sponsor XIII:2 12: They could tomahawk a high-rated serial and replace it with some cornball d.j.
1960		P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 24: And then the d.j.’s would take it [i.e. a tune] up, and that’s how I was an agent.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 90: The only way a deejay could survive was to develop a spiel so fast, so smooth that it became music on its own.
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 30: I’ve worked in most of these as a D.J., in me time.
1980		N. George ‘Rapping Deejays’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 43: A much more accurate idea of where rapping deejays began can be found [...] at a South Bronx disco called Club 371.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 80: I first heard a D.J. using that name.
1990		R. Doyle Snapper 10: He wants to be a D.J. – A wha’? – A D.J. A disc jockey.
1998		Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 4: The city’s leading club deejays.
1999		Indep. Rev. 20 Aug. 19: Never mind the dance-floor charts / Never mind this handsome deejay.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 288: Suddenly the DJ kills the sound.
2004		Guardian G2 20 Sept. 16: As a dancehall deejay (the Jamaican word for MC), Brown [...] performs under the name Ms Thing.
2008		Indep. (London) 19 Mar. 35: A young technician [...] took on a graveyard shift as a DJ at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.
2010		K. Richards Life 265: He was living with a German DJ, a blond boy.
2012		Jamaican Obs. 14 Oct. 🌐 J’can deejay and female companion cut down in Bronx motel parking lot.
2018		Tampa Bay Times (FL) 30 Aug. 44/4: There were speed dating booths and a volunteer DJ.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 548: The deejay impact made it open season for all types of songs.
1960		G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 27: He was soon given his own dee-jay show every night.