a. colloq. and dial. [Of obscure origin; the shorter form spiff is recorded in dialect use from 1862; also spiff ‘a well-dressed man, a swell’ (Slang Dict., 1874).] Smart, spruce.
1860. Slang Dict., 223. Spiffy, spruce, well-dressed.
1881–. in dial. glossaries (Leicester, Warwick, Cornwall).
1896. Mrs. Lynn Linton, in Chambers’s Jrnl., 25 Jan., 50/1. I, in my older clothes, and by no means ‘spiffy’ in my get-up, am quite as good as you in your diamonds and orders.
