"Ofay" etymology (speculative)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>HDAS s.v. _jig-walk_ has extensive evidence for the sense 'a black person';
>while the first cite is from the 1920s, some of the cites refer to times as
>early as the 1890s. It seems pretty clear to me that _jiw-wauk_ is some
>kind of typo or variant of _jig-walk_.
>
> > Is more extensive context available? Superficially it does not
> > seem natural that a visitor to London (England) would write home that there
> > were plenty of white people there, but maybe this makes sense in the
> > overall context.
>
>This is a black musician, writing home to black colleagues about a visit
>to London. Saying "Blacks are scarce, but whites are plentiful" doesn't
>seem remotely controversial or ambiguous here. I don't think there's any
>question at all that this 1899 cite represents _ofay_ in our sense.

Thanks for the input from Jesse Sheidlower.

Certainly seems to be "O-fay" = "white person".

I guess Barry Popik needs to reach back another 21 years. (^_^)

HDAS citations suggest that "Jigwalk" and "Ofay" are a traditional pair, I
guess.

Does OED have "au fait" = "stylish"/"fashionable"/"proper" BTW?

-- Doug Wilson