Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. see ginger-cake

2. see separate entry.

1. (US, also gingerbread) a person of mixed race; also attrib. [the ginger-toned shade of the person’s skin].

1880		A.W. Tourgée Bricks without Straw 71: There were three or four hundred scholars [...] black, brown, white apparently, all shades of what we used to call ‘ginger-cake’.
1912		B.W. Green Virginia Folk-Speech 196: Ginger-bread negro.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 105: What’s the damages, Gingerbread?
1967–9		in DARE II (1991) 677/1: (People of mixed blood – part Negro) [...] Ginger cake.

2. (S.Afr.) a policeman [the brown uniform].

1989

J. Hobbs Thoughts in a Makeshift Mortuary 175: There were cops everywhere. [...] People used to call them ginger-cakes because of the khaki uniforms they wore.

3. see ginger n.²

see ginger n.²

red-haired.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: ginger pated, or ginger hackled red haired, a term borrowed from the cock pit, where red cocks are called gingers.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

a red-headed person.

1915		P. Macgill Amateur Army 64: I’ll give old Ginger Nobby what for one day!
2002		LEA LEA’S homepage 🌐 Crikey, bit of a ginger nob here [caption to photo of a ginger-haired man].

(US) usu. ironic use, splendid.

1949–51		in M. Daly Profile of Youth 228: Smooth tunes are ‘fine like wine’; Western songs are ‘ginger peachy’.
1952		Englund Never Wave at a WAC [film] That’s just ginger-peachy! [HDAS].
1970		M. Gattzden Black Vendetta 108: That’s real ginger-peachy [HDAS].
2002		A.J. Elias She Was Eighteen and a Half 219: They usually start the same way, ‘Say Al, do you know anyone who would like to double his salary with a ginger peachy outfit.’.

(US black) a black person.

1962

P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 388: All you marshmallows have one friend who’s a gingersnap.