The Times. Monday, April 19, 1819, pg. 3, Issue 10651, column E

A correspondent, who signs himself “A DANDY,” and who ought, therefore, to know something of the subject, has, with singular candour and generosity, sent us another derivation of the term “Dandy,” which he says comes from “Dandin,” a name well-known to all readers of the French drama, as the hero of Molière’s comedy of George Dandin, and thence adopted into the French vocabulary, as signifying a tame cuckold, a ninny, a contemptible simpleton.

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Im Wörterbuch der Académie Française von 1694 heißt es

dandin – “Niais, descontenancé. Il est bas”

Auch dies bestätigt, dass der Dandy ursprünglich als lächerliche, nicht ernstzunehmende Erscheinung galt.