noun a sharply dressed individual who lives by his wits – within the law for preference, and not too far outside the law whenever possible. Several possible etymologies vie for credence: an acronym from police records 'Suspected Persons and Itinerant Vagrants'; back slang of the acronym for 'Very Important Persons' (VIPs); dialect spif or spiff (neat, smart, dandified), which also leads to SPIFFING (excellent); spivic, an apparently obsolete Romany word for 'sparrow', used to describe those who followed the gypsies and picked up their leavings UK, 1934