floogy

English

Noun

floogy (plural floogies)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of floozie
   • 1939, Helen Worden, Here is New York, page 71:

     Another haunt of the jivers and flat-foot floogies is the Cotton Club at 200 West Forty-eighth Street, where Duke Ellington plays.

   • 1942, The Economist - Volume 143, page 359:

     Neither does it bother the floogy on the front seat, in pink slacks and a pseudo-sailor souvenir cap cocked on her synthetic curls.

   • 2004, Marina Harrison, Lucy D. Rosenfeld, Artwalks in New York, page 247:

     Muriel Castanis's Flatbush Floogies are elegant, patinated-bronze relief murals showing female forms suspended from above, much like angels.

2. A nonce word with no fixed meaning
   • 1942, N.A.R.D. Journal - Volume 64, page 489:

     Nobody, unless he be a floogy boogy bird, who has been watching the accomplishments of the N. A. R. D. and the A. Ph. A. could even insinuate that we have not had a voice in Washington;

   • 1948, Report of Proceedings of the ... Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor, page 362:

     There are no pairs in this hand and only two cards in the same suit. That's a floogie. It beats anything.

   • 1993, Anthony V. Manzo, Ula Casale Manzo, Literacy disorders: holistic diagnosis and remediation, page 293:

     ...if children lived on boats and didn't take to the water immediately, we would put "floogies" on their arms to keep them afloat and build confidence until they learned how to swim.

   • 2007, The Hollywood Reporter - Volume 399, page cxvi:

     "(Wilson) feels like sibling rivalry drives the world and that we are all somehow formed by our siblings," Rosen said. "He is tapping into universal aspects like noogies and floogies and Indian burns."

Usage notes

The most well-known use of floogy as an alternative form of floozie is in the 1938 song "Flat-foot floogy with the floy floy" by Slim Gaillard (1916–1991), Slam Stewart (1914–1987), and Bud Green (1897–1981). Because this song persisted after the use of floogy to mean "floozie" was lost, floogy was sometimes used to mean a variety of flat-footed people from GIs to bad dancers.