Floozie

The meaning of “floozy” has changed over the years. The source of “floozy” is, surprisingly, almost certainly the adjective “flossy,” which is based on “floss.” In the early 20th century US, “floozie,” a colloquial form of “flossy,” was most often used in the first sense of “elegant, attractive,” especially with reference to young women, but by mid-century the “saucy” element had come to the fore and a “floozy” in popular parlance was a wild and disreputable “party girl,” if not actually a prostitute (“He bought a red racy car and went skidding around ... with every floozy in town; the only nice girls you ever saw in that car were his sisters.” Truman Capote, 1951). [2]