or bloke, subs. (venery).—A prostitute’s lover, husband, or pensioner. [There are two suggested derivations; (1) that FANCY here bears its face value; (2) that it is a corruption of the Fr. fiancé.] FANCY-WOMAN = a mistress or KEEP (q.v.). For synonyms, see BULLY and infra.
1821. P. EGAN, Tom and Jerry, p. 20. Although ‘one of the fancy,’ he was not a FANCY MAN.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 70. ‘And me,’ insinuated Mrs. Maggot. ‘My little FANCY MAN’S quite as fond of me as of you, Bess. Ain’t you, Jacky darling?’
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. I., p. 186. The women of the town buy of me, when it gets late, for themselves and their FANCY MEN.
1857. SNOWDEN, Magistrates Assistant (3rd ed.), p. 446, s.v.
1885. Indoor Paupers, p. 38. The most degraded are the men who subsist by fastening upon street harlots and sharing their wretched earnings. When their mistresses come to grief, and are placed under lock and key, which happens frequently, the FANCY MAN generally manages to skulk out of the mischief and escape scot-free.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Apple-squire; faker; bully; ponce; pensioner; Sunday-man; fancy Joseph; squire of the body; fucker; apron-squire; cunt-pensioner; petticoat pensioner; prosser; twat-faker; twat-master; stallion; mack; bouncer; bruiser; buck.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Un Des Grieux (popular: the hero of Manon Lescaut); un aquarium (pop.: an assembly of fancy-men; cf., maquereau = a mackerel); un cousin de Möise (pop.: a ‘fast’ man who has married a demimondaine; Delvau says, ‘dans l’argot du peuple, qui fait allusion aux deux lignes de feu dont sont ornées les tempes du législateur des Hébreux’); un caprice (pop.: un caprice sérieux = a man who keeps a mistress); un paillasson (pop.: = a mattress); un dos; un marlou.
GERMAN SYNONYMS. Balhoche (from Hebrew baal, a man + hocho, here, there. Literally, one in possession but removable); Strichler or Strichbube (Strich = a fast locality); Strawes; Straweszunder (Viennese: from strizeln = to run quickly).
ITALIAN SYNONYM. Bramoso.
SPANISH SYNONYMS. Comblezado (obsolete: applied to a married man whose wife lives in adultery with another); mandilejo (vulgar).
