Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus./N.Z.) sixpence [orig. Scottish pron.].

1885		Goulburn Eve. Penny Post (NSW) 8 Sep. 2/2: [Scottish speaker] ‘Ah!’ said Donald, taking a reflective pinch of sneeshin; ‘in that case I’ll enter action the morn for sax and a half pund, Scots, for damages, and sax maer for fright’.
1895		Mirror of Life 6 July 7/2: ‘I had not been in London three hours when bang went. saxpence’ is the experience credited to most Scotchmen.
1919		Nat. Advocate (Bathurst, NSW) 13 Jan. 2/5: The Scotchman is credited with being the most thrifty in the world, but since last Wednesday he may be labelled as also ran, or a back number. ‘Bang goes sax’ is not a circumstance to our aldermen’s conception of economy.
1929		Sport (Adelaide) 24 Oct. 3/4: One day a tramp was standing on a street corner in the city, singing, ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ A returned soldier, passing, threw sixpence into the empty hat and said, ‘Here’s a sax, dig, but it’s a pity you didn’t make better use of the soap’.
1936		Albury Banner (NSW) 26 June 32/2: [Scottish speaker] ‘And what if you did lose a six pence?’ ‘It’s nae only masel’. There’s sax of us in it’.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 91: In New Zealand slang a [...] sixpence a sax, presumably from Scottish saxpence.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 238/2: sax – a sixpence.

2. a saxophone; also attrib.

1852		Southern Reporter 15 July 2/5: The solo by the tenor sax horn being beautifully executed.
1872		Era (London) 14 July 15/2: [advert] Wanted [...] to play Tenor Sax or Second Cornet. Salary 30s.
1923		N.Y. Times 7 Oct. IX 2: Sax, a saxophone.
1929		Stage (London) 20 June 18/3: The Yankees play the sax (they’re lovely blowers!).
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 129: Flirt: What are sax’s? [...] . Flapper: [...] They’re saxophones [...] The instruments which start your hormones running.
1937		Metronome Mar. 31: Don’t miss the sax figures on the last chorus of Bridge.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 48: Soho is crowded with music shops. My favourite is the sax shop.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: The sax man is faking a few riffs, the fiddler is strumming his key, the party is in the take off stage.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 116: Buy myself a new sax, get a suit and put myself right.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 12: Even Louis wasn’t the same, not with those slurpy sax sections behind him.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 61: I began to take sax lessons.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 30: That sax has given me many a headache.
1999		Guardian Rev. 2 July 21: He parades his typically fruity sax tones.
2000		Observer Mag. 25 Jan. 15: Dickie is a would-be painter, not a sax player.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 38: Barone dropped a dollar bill in the sax case.

3. a saxophone player.

2001

(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 110: He popped the sax for stat rape.