Adj. (common).—1. Spruce; dandified. Jemminess = spruceness; neatness.
1754. Connoisseur, No. 19. The jemmy attorney’s clerk,—the prim
curate.
1767. Gentleman’s Mag., Sept. A cute man is an abbreviation of
acute ... and signifies a person that is sharp, clever, neat, or,
to use a more modern term, jemmy.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Jemmy-fellow.
1800. Whiter, Etym. Magn., p. 359. To this race of words I must
refer our vulgar term jemmy.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, vol. i. p. 11. He ...
once was as smart a fellow as ever stood toast-master, dressed as
jemmy ... as e’er a commoner in all England.
d. 1800. Pegge [quoted by Todd]. Perhaps the new word jemmy should
be Gimmy.
1825. Todd, Eng. Dict. s.v. Jemmy, spruce. A low word.
1840. Chambers, Land of Burns, Div. N. I must tell you that Burns
had got a pair of jemmy boots for the journey.