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{{see also|crackers}}
==English==
==English==
{{wikipedia|dab=Cracker}}{{wikipedia|Cracker (slang)}}
{{wikipedia|dab=Cracker}}

===Pronunciation===
===Pronunciation===
* {{enPR|krăk'ə(r)}}, {{IPA|/ˈkrækə(r)/|lang=en}}
* {{enPR|krăk'ə(r)}}, {{IPA|/ˈkrækə(r)/|lang=en}}
Line 7: Line 7:


===Etymology 1===
===Etymology 1===
From {{term|crack}} (''verb'') + {{term|er}} (''forming nouns of agency'').
From the verb ''to [[crack]]''. Hard "bread/biscuit" sense first attested 1739, though "hard wafer" sense attested 1440.
[[Category:English agent nouns]]

Sense of computer {{term|cracker}}, {{term|crack}}, {{term|cracking}}, were promoted in the 1980s as an alternative to {{term|hacker}}, by programmers concerned about negative public associations of {{term|hack}}, {{term|hacking||creative computer coding}}. See [[Citations:cracker#Computer_cracker|Citations:cracker]].


====Noun====
====Noun====
{{en-noun}}
{{en-noun}}


# A [[dry]], [[thin]], [[crispy]], and usually [[salty]] or [[savoury]] [[biscuit]].
# [[someone|Someone]] who or [[something]] that [[crack]]s, [[particularly]]:
## [[something|Something]] that [[break]]s with a [[dry]], [[sharp]] [[noise]], [[particularly]]:
# A short piece of twisted [[string]] tied to the end of a [[whip]] that creates the distinctive sound when the whip is thrown or ''cracked''.
### {{context|US}} A [[thin]], [[small]], and [[hard]] [[baked good]], [[usually]] [[salty]] or [[savory]]; a [[savoury]] [[biscuit]].
# A [[firecracker]].
###*'''1739''' in the ''New England Historical and Genealogical Register'' (1868), Vol. XII, p. 296:
# A person or thing that [[crack|cracks]], or that cracks a thing (e.g. [[whip]] cracker; [[nutcracker]]).
###*:[[we|Wee]] [[have|haue]]... sent a box of '''Crakers''' to you.
# (Perhaps from previous sense.) A native of Florida or Georgia. See [[Wikipedia:Cracker (slang)]]
###*'''1781''', William Moss, ''An Essay on the Management & Nursing of Children in the Earlier Periods of Infancy'', p. 108:
# {{context|pejorative|ethnic slur|lang=en}} A white person. Also "white cracker". See [[Wikipedia:Cracker (slang)]]
###*:Hard biscuit, commonly called '''crackers''', are sometimes given; but they are heavy, owing to their being made without yeast and not fermented.
# A [[Christmas cracker]]
### {{context|UK}} {{short for|cracker bonbon|nodot=11}}, a [[small]] [[piece]] of [[candy]] which [[explode]]s when its [[wrapper]] is [[pull]]ed from [[both]] [[end]]s.
# [[refinery|Refinery]] equipment used to [[pyrolyse]] organic feedstocks. If [[catalyst]] is used to aid [[pyrolysis]] it is informally called a ''cat-cracker''
###*'''1841''', Andrew Smith, "Delightful People" in ''The Mirror'', Vol. XXXVII. 404:
# {{context|chiefly|British|lang=en}} A fine thing or person ([[crackerjack]]).
#: ''She's an absolute '''cracker'''! The show was a '''cracker'''!''
###*:He exploded a '''cracker bonbon'''.
###*'''1844''', Albert R. Smith, ''The adventures of Mr. Ledbury and his friend Jack Johnson'', Vol. II, Ch. iii, p. 44:
#* {{quote-news
###*:They paid compliments, and said clever things, and pulled '''crackers'''.
|year=2011
###*'''1954''', {{w|J.R.R. Tolkien}}, ''{{w|Fellowship of Ring}}'', Ch. i, p. 45:
|date=January 15
###*:The crumbs and '''cracker'''-paper, the forgotten bags and gloves and handkerchiefs.
|author=Saj Chowdhury
### {{context|UK}} {{short for|Christmas cracker|nodot=11}}, a [[similarly]]-[[wrapped]] [[holiday]] [[candy]].
|title=Man City 4 - 3 Wolves
### {{context|UK|_|colloquial|obsolete}} A [[crash]], a [[breakdown]].
|work=BBC
###*'''1869 November 8''', ''Daily News'' (Farmer):
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/9357962.stm
###*:He's '''gone a cracker over''' head and ears.
|page=
## [[something|Something]] that [[make]]s a [[similar]] [[dry]], [[sharp]] [[noise]], [[particularly]]:
|passage=And just before the interval, Kolarov, who was having one of his better games in a City shirt, fizzed in a '''cracker''' from 30 yards which the Wolves stopper unconvincingly pushed behind for a corner. }}
### A [[firecracker]], [[fireworks]] that [[burst]] with a [[sharp]] [[report]].
# An ambitious or hard-working person (i.e. someone who arises at the 'crack' of dawn).
###*'''''ante'' 1592''', Robert Greene, ''The historie of Orlando Furioso, one of the twelue pieres of France'', sig. Fv:
# {{context|computing|lang=en}} One who [[crack]]s (i.e. overcomes) computer software or security restrictions.
###*:Yes, yes, with squibs and '''crackers''' [[bravely|brauely]].
#* '''1984''', Richard Sedric Fox Eells, Peter Raymond Nehemkis, ''Corporate Intelligence and Espionage: A Blueprint for Executive Decision Making'', Macmillan, p 137:
###*'''1661 November 5''', {{w|Samuel Pepys}}, ''[[w:Pepys's Diary|Diary]]'' (1970), II. 208:
#*: It stated to one of the company's operators, “The Phantom, the system '''cracker''', strikes again . . . Soon I will zero (expletive deleted) your desks and your backups on System A. I have already cracked your System B.
###*:Seeing the boys in the street fling their '''Crackers'''.
#* '''2002''', Steve Jones, ''Encyclopedia of New Media'' (page 1925)
###*'''1702''', {{w|Daniel Defoe}}, ''Reformation of Manners: a satyr'':
#*: Likewise, early software pirates and "'''crackers'''" often used phrases like "information wants to be free" to protest the regulations against the copying of proprietary software packages and computer systems.
###*:These are the Squibs and '''Crackers''' of the Law, Which Hiss, and make a Bounce, and then withdraw.
# {{context|obsolete|lang=en}} A [[noisy]] [[boaster]]; a [[swagger]]ing fellow.
### {{context|US|Australia}} A [[popper]], a [[twist]]ed [[string]] [[attach]]ed to the [[end]] of a [[whip]] or [[lash]].
#* Shakespeare
###*'''1835''', J.W. Monett in Joseph H. Ingraham, ''The South-west: By a Yankee'', Vol. II., Appendix, p. 288:
#*: What '''cracker''' is this same that deafs our ears?
###*:To the end of the lash is attached a soft, dry, buckskin '''cracker'''... So soft is the '''cracker''', that a person who has not the sleight of using the whip, could scarcely hurt a child with it.
# The [[pintail]] [[duck]].
# {{context|obsolete|lang=en}} A pair of [[fluted]] [[roll]]s for [[grind]]ing [[caoutchouc]].
### {{qualifier|slang|obsolete}} A [[barker]], a [[pistol]] or [[handgun]].
###*'''1751''', Thomas Smollett, ''The adventures of Peregrine Pickle'', Vol. I, Ch. xxviii, p. 215:
#: {{rfquotek|Knight}}
###*:'As we are on shore, you and I must crack a pistol at one another...'
###*:'...I don't value your '''crackers''' of a rope's end.'
### {{context|UK|_|colloquial|obsolete}} A [[rapid]], [[rattling]] [[pace]].
###*'''1871 November 1''', ''Daily News'' (Farmer):
###*:The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the straight a '''cracker'''.
###*'''1891''', N. Gould, ''Double Event'', p. 124:
###*:Rob Roy made the pace a '''cracker''' past the sheds.
###*'''1892 April 9''', ''Field'', 514/2:
###*:The deer... went a rare '''cracker''' over Shirt Hill.
### {{context|zoology}} A [[cracker butterfly]], a [[member]] of any of [[several]] [[related]] [[species]] in the [[genus]] ''[[species:Hamadryas (Nymphalidae)|Hamadryas]]''.
###*'''1993''', Charles Hogue, ''Latin American Insects and Entomology'', p. 345:
###*:On the approach of another individual, a male '''cracker''' lurches from its perch and fights off the intruder. Such encounters are usually punctuated by crackling or clicking noises that the butterflies themselves emit.
## {{context|obsolete}} [[someone|Someone]] who [[talks big]], a [[braggart]], a [[boaster]]; by [[extension]]:
##*'''1509''', Alexander Barclay, ''The shyp of folys of the worlde'' (Pynson), f. xv:
##*:'''Crakars''' and [[boasters|bosters]] with [[courtiers|Courters]] [[adventurous|auenterous]].
##*{{circa|1596}} {{w|William Shakespeare}}, ''{{w|The life and death of King Iohn}}'', Act II, Scene i., Lines 147 f.:
##*:''[[w:Leopold V, Duke of Austria|Auſt]]''. What '''cracker''' is this [[same|ſame]] that [[deafens|deafes]] our [[ears|eares]]
##*:With this abundance of [[superfluous|ſuperfluous]] breath?
### {{context|slang|obsolete}} A [[tall tale]]; a [[lie]], a [[false]] [[statement]].
###*'''''ante'' 1625''', J. Fletcher, ''Womans Prize'', Act III, Scene v from ''Comedies & Tragedies'' (1647), sig. Ppppp/1:
###*:...'''Crackers'''
###*:Put now upon me?
###*'''1871 July 24''', ''Daily News'':
###*:Learning to tell lies, and call them ‘'''crackers'''’.
### {{context|US|_|regional|pejorative}} [[poor white trash|Poor white trash]] in the [[South]].
###*'''1766 June 27''', Gavin Cochrane, ''Letter to the [[w:William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth|Earl of Dartmouth]]'':
###*:I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by '''Crackers'''; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of [[rascal]]ls on the frontiers of [[Virginia]], [[Maryland]], the [[Carolinas]] and [[Georgia]], who often change their places of abode.
###*'''1772''', J. Habersham, ''Letters'' (1904), p. 204:
###*:Persons who... live by hunting and plundering the industrious [[settlers|Setlers]]... The people I refer to are really what you and I understand by '''Crackers'''.
###*'''1784''', ''London Chronicle'', No. 4287:
###*:{{w|Maryland}}, the back settlements of which colony had since the peace been greatly disturbed by the inroads of that hardy [[banditti]] well known by the name of '''Crackers'''.
###*'''1850''', C. Lyell, ''2nd Visit U.S.'', Vol. II, p. 73:
###*:Sometimes... my host would be of the humblest class of ‘'''crackers'''’, or some low, illiterate German or Irish emigrants.
###*'''1856''', {{w|F.L. Olmsted}}, ''Journey through the Slave States'', p. 548:
###*:The operatives in the cotton-mills are said to be mainly ‘'''Cracker''' girls’ (poor whites from the country).
### {{context|US|_|regional|sometimes|_|pejorative}} A [[Georgian]], a [[native]] of the [[America]]n [[state]] of [[Georgia]].
###*'''1767 September 21''', ''New York Mercury'' in ''Mag. Amer. Hist.'' (1878), Vol. II, p. 250:
###*:A number of people called '''Crackers''', who live above [[w:Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]], in the province of [[Georgia]], had [[w:Oconee War|gone in a hostile manner to... Okonee]].
###*'''1888 July''', ''Harper's Magazine'', p. 240:
###*:They will live like the '''crackers''' of Georgia or the moonshiners of Tennessee.
### {{context|US|_|regional|sometimes|_|pejorative}} A [[Floridian]], a [[native]] of the [[America]]n [[state]] of [[Florida]], [[especially]] {{context|historical}} [[early]] [[cowboy]]s of the [[area]].
###*'''1866''', Whitelaw Reid, ''After the War: A Southern Tour'', p. 165:
###*:A returned Rebel soldier had found a pretty little '''cracker''' girl, scarcely fourteen years old,... whom, by promises of toys and a new dress, he had induced clandestinely to marry him. The poor girl's mother was distressed, took the girl away, and refused to recognize the marriage. The Rebel soldier came to town, found the girl and her mother here, and seized upon the child, vowing that she must straightway<!--sic--> come home with him, or he would kill her. The people of the town did not seem to think the affair unusual, or requiring any attention... Perhaps the incident is as good an illustration of the Florida '''cracker''' stage of civilization as could have been found.
###*'''1870 November''', J.S. Bradford, "Crackers" in ''Lippincott's Magazine'', Vol.&nbsp;VI., No.&nbsp;29; p.&nbsp;458:
###*:The Florida '''Cracker'''... is usually an emigrant from Georgia&mdash;often coming from near the Tennessee line.
### {{context|US|racial slur}} Any [[white]] [[person]], [[whitey]].
###*'''1964 April 3''', {{w|Malcolm X}}, "The Ballot or the Bullet":
###*:It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting some '''cracker''' senators, Northern '''crackers''' and Southern '''crackers''', sit there in [[Washington, D.C.]], and come to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights. There's no white man going to tell me anything about my rights.
###*'''2008''', {{w|Louis C.K.}}, "I Enjoy Being White" on ''{{w|Chewed Up}}'':
###*:I’m a ''white'' ''man'', you can’t even hurt my feelings! What can you really call a white man that really digs deep? 'Hey '''cracker'''!' ... 'Oh, ruined my day. Boy, shouldn’t have called me a '''cracker''', bringing me back to owning land and people. What a drag.'
# [[someone|Someone]] who or [[something]] that [[cause]]s [[another]] to [[crack]], [[particularly]]:
#*'''''ante''&nbsp;1659''', Francis Osborne, ''Political Reflections upon the Government of the Turks'' (1673), 344:
#*:The Tongues being at the best but the '''Crackers''' of Knowledge: the Kernel remaining useless... till picked and dressed by Employment and Experience.
## {{context|zoology|UK|_|regional}} The [[Northern pintail]] (''[[species:Anas acuta|Anas acuta]]''), a [[kind]] of [[duck]].
##*'''1678''', John Ray translating Francis Willughby as ''The ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton'', p.&nbsp;376:
##*:The [[sea-pheasant|Sea-Pheasant]] or '''Cracker''': ''Anas caudacuta''.
## {{context|often in plural}} {{short for|nutcracker}}
##*'''1799''', Robert Southey, ''Nondescripts'', vi:
##*:It were an easy thing to crack that nut
##*:Or with thy '''crackers''' or thy double teeth.
## {{context|UK|colloquial|often in plural}} The [[teeth]].
##*'''1815 August 9''', {{w|Charles Lamb}}, letter in ''The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb'' (1978), Vol.&nbsp;III, p.&nbsp;174:
##*:I conjecture my full-happinessed friend is picking his '''crackers'''.
## {{context|historical|lang=en}} A [[pair]] of [[fluted]] [[roll]]s for [[grind]]ing [[caoutchouc|latex]].
##*'''1874''', Edward H. Knight, ''The practical dictionary of mechanics'':
##*:'''''Cracker'''''... 3. One of the deeply grooved iron cylinders which revolve in pairs and grind the tough, raw [[caoutchouc]].
## A [[cracking]] [[plant]], a [[machine]] or [[facility]] in which [[large]] [[hydrocarbon]]s are [[broken]] into [[smaller]] ones.
##*'''1951 August 11''', ''{{w|The Economist}}'', p.&nbsp;358:
##*:The modern catalytic '''cracker'''... may use as many as 350 instruments measuring and controlling such variables as flow, pressure and temperature.
## {{context|computing}} A [[system cracker]], a [[hacker]] who [[breaks into]] [[computer]] [[program]]s or [[network]]s.
##*'''1984 May 7''', “Letters” in ''InfoWorld'', Vol.&nbsp;VI, No.&nbsp;19, p.&nbsp;6:
##*:''Syscracker'' is a hackerish shorthand word that means “system '''cracker'''” and refers to a specific subclass of hackers that spends a significant portion of its time breaking into computer systems.
##*'''2002''', Steve Jones, ''Encyclopedia of New Media'', p.&nbsp;1925:
##*:Likewise, early software pirates and "'''crackers'''" often used phrases like "information wants to be free" to protest the regulations against the copying of proprietary software packages and computer systems.

=====Usage notes=====
The divergent meaning of "[[biscuit]]" in British and American English partially derives from the popularity of "cracker" as a term to describe hard baked flour wafers in American English. Generally speaking, American "crackers" are the salty or 'savoury' British "biscuits" while American "cookies" are the sweet British "biscuits".

The racial slur is now [[folk etymology|popularly derived]] from the cracking of slave masters' whips and formerly supposed to be derived from cowboys' whips or an abbreviation of {{term|corn-cracker}}, but these derivations lack documentary support.


=====Derived terms=====
=====Derived terms=====
{{rel-top|Derived terms}}
* [[animal cracker]]
* [[arinome cracker]]
* [[bank-cracker]]
* [[belladonna cracker]]
* [[black-patched cracker]]
* [[brownish cracker]]
* [[chloe cracker]]
* [[cracker-bag]]
* [[cracker-box]]
* [[cracker-barrel]]
* [[cracker butterfly]]
* [[crackeress]]
* [[cracker-hash]], [[cracker hash]]
* [[crackerjack]]
* [[crackerless]]
* [[crackerless]]
* [[crackerlike]]
* [[crackerlike]]
* [[Cracker Night]]
* [[cracker-peddler]]
* [[crackers]]
* [[Cracker State]]
* [[cracker stew]]
* [[crackery]]
* [[cream cracker]]
* [[firecracker]], [[fire-cracker]]
{{rel-mid}}
* [[Florida Cracker]]
* [[glaucous cracker]]
* [[Graham cracker]], [[graham cracker]]
* [[grey cracker]]
* [[Guatamalan cracker]]
* [[iphthime cracker]]
* [[ken-cracker]]
* [[nutcracker]]
* [[nutcrackers]]
* [[orange cracker]]
* [[oyster cracker]]
* [[red cracker]]
* [[rice cracker]]
* [[safecracker]], [[safe-cracker]], [[safe cracker]]
* [[saltine cracker]]
* [[soda cracker]]
* [[starry cracker]], [[starry night cracker]]
* [[system cracker]]
* [[variable cracker]]
* [[velutina cracker]]
* [[white cracker]]
* [[Yucatan cracker]]
{{rel-bottom}}

=====Synonyms=====
* {{sense|noisemaker on a whip}} [[popper]]
* {{sense|white person}} ''See'' '''[[whitey]]'''
* {{sense|one who defeats software security}} [[hacker]]

=====Related terms=====
* {{qualifier|thin, hard biscuit}} [[biscuit]], [[cookie]]


=====Translations=====
=====Translations=====
Line 65: Line 198:
* Taos: {{t|twf|kèke’éna}}
* Taos: {{t|twf|kèke’éna}}
{{trans-bottom}}
{{trans-bottom}}
{{trans-top|noisemaker on a whip}}

{{trans-top|a short piece of string}}
* Japanese: {{t|ja|クラッカー|tr=kurakkā|sc=Jpan}}
* Japanese: {{t|ja|クラッカー|tr=kurakkā|sc=Jpan}}
{{trans-mid}}
{{trans-mid}}
{{trans-bottom}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-see|firecracker}}
{{trans-see|firecracker}}


=====Synonyms=====
====Verb====
{{en-verb}}
* {{sense|twisted string on a whip}} [[popper]]
* {{sense|one who defeats software security}} [[hacker]]
* {{sense|white person}} ''See'' '''[[whitey]]'''


# {{context|transitive|uncommon}} To [[pelt]] with [[#Etymology 1|crackers]].
=====Related terms=====
#*'''1870 November 5''', ''Pall Mall Gazette'', p.&nbsp;5:
* [[biscuit]] (UK)
#*:They may not squib and '''cracker''' the inhabitants.
* [[cookie]]


===Etymology 2===
===Etymology 2===
''See'' '''{{l|en|crake}}'''.
Various theories exists regarding this term's application to poor white Southerners. One theory holds that it originated with disadvantaged corn and wheat farmers ("corncrackers"), who ''cracked'' their crops rather than taking them to the mill. Another theory asserts that it was applied due to Georgia and Florida settlers ([[w:Florida_cracker|Florida crackers]]) who ''cracked'' loud whips to drive herds of cattle, or, alternatively, from the whip cracking of plantation slave drivers. Yet another theory maintains that the term ''cracker'' was in use in [[w:Elizabethan_era|Elizabethan]] times to describe braggarts (see {{term|crack|lang=en||to boast}}). An early reference that supports this sense is a letter dated June 27, 1766 from Gavin Cochrane to the [[w:Earl of Dartmouth|Earl of Dartmouth]]:
<blockquote>I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, who often change their places of abode.<ref>"[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cracker cracker]" in the ''Online Etymology Dictionary'', Douglas Harper, 2001</ref><ref>"[http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-552 cracker]" in ''The New Georgia Encyclopedia'', John A. Burrison, Georgia State University, 2002</ref>
</blockquote>


====Noun====
====Noun====
{{wikipedia|Cracker (pejorative)}}
{{en-noun}}
{{en-noun}}


# {{context|zoology|UK|_|regional}} The [[corncrake]] (''[[species:Crex crex|Crex crex]]'').
# {{context|US|pejorative|racial slur|lang=en}} An [[impoverished]] white person from the southeastern United States, originally associated with Georgia and parts of Florida; ''by extension:'' any white person.
#*'''1885''', Charles Swainson, '' Provincial names and folk lore of British birds'', p.&nbsp;177:
#*:Corn Crake... Creck, '''Cracker''', or Craker (''North; Salop''). Bean crake, or Bean '''cracker''' (''South Pembroke'').


=====Synonyms=====
===Etymology 3===
''Uncertain'', probably from various slang senses of {{term|crack}} as a noun ("something or someone [[approaching]] [[perfection]]; a [[truly]] [[excellent]] [[racehorse]]; a [[resounding]] [[blow]]"), but possibly from [[#Etymology 1|Etymology 1]] above, from dialectical variants of related words (cf. {{term|corker}}, {{term|gimcrack}}), or from [[rhyming slang]].
* {{sense|whites}} [[white trash]], [[trailer trash]], [[redneck]], [[peckerwood]], [[honky]], (''sometimes'') [[crack head]]


====Quotations====
====Noun====
* {{seeCites}}
{{en-noun|-|s}}


# {{context|chiefly|horse racing|_|slang|now uncommon}} A [[large]] [[amount]] of [[money]].
===References===
#*'''1861''', G.J. Whyte-Melville, ''Good for Nothing'', Vol.&nbsp;I, Chapter&nbsp;vi, p.&nbsp;70:
<references/>
#*:I remember... Belphegor's year. What a '''cracker''' I stood to win on him and the Rejected!
#*'''1942''', L.V. Berrey &&nbsp;al., ''The American Thesaurus of Slang'', §559/7:
#*:''Large sum of money''... '''cracker'''.
# {{context|slang|now|_|chiefly|UK}} An [[outstanding]] [[specimen]], a [[truly]] [[excellent]] [[thing]]; an [[attractive]], [[engaging]], or [[admirable]] [[person]]; a [[beautiful]] [[woman]].
#*'''1891''', J.S. Farmer &&nbsp;al., ''Slang'', Vol.&nbsp;II, p.&nbsp;201/2:
#*:'''''Cracker'''''... anything approaching perfection.
#*'''1977 August 20''', ''{{w|The Economist}}'', p.&nbsp;13/1:
#*:The [[United States]] has got itself a '''cracker''' of a deal in [[w:Torrijos–Carter_Treaties|the treaty]] to end its 74-year control of the {{w|Panama Canal Zone}}.
#*'''2011 January 15''', Saj Chowdhury, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/9357962.stm "Man City 4 - 3 Wolves"] for ''BBC News'':
#*:And just before the interval, Kolarov, who was having one of his better games in a City shirt, fizzed in a '''cracker''' from 30 yards which the Wolves stopper unconvincingly pushed behind for a corner.
# {{context|Australia|_|slang}} The [[merest]] or [[meanest]] [[conceivable]] [[amount]] of [[money]].
#*'''1934''', W. S. Howard, ''You're Telling Me!'' p.&nbsp;300:
#*:What about money?... We haven't got a '''cracker'''.
#*'''1965''', R.H. Conquest, ''Horses in the Kitchen'', p.&nbsp;62:
#*:I bet you haven't saved a '''cracker''', eh?


=====Usage notes=====
[[Category:African American Vernacular English]]
The use of "cracker" in slang senses of truly excellent ''predates'' {{term|crackerjack}} and does not derive from it, as is sometimes proposed.
[[Category:English agent nouns]]

[[Category:English ethnic slurs]]
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' cites S.J. Baker's 1941 ''Popular Dictionary of Australian Slang'' as an authority that "cracker" originally referred (for some unknown reason) to a [[£]]1 [[banknote|note]]. G.A. Wilkes's 1978 ''Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms'' avers that there is no evidence it has ever been used in any other sense than its present one, where it is invariably used negatively to mean "not one [[red cent]]", "not a penny".

====Adjective====
{{en-adj}}

# {{context|chiefly|NZ}} [[outstanding|Outstanding]], [[truly]] [[excellent]], [[exceptional]].
#*'''1964''', N.B. Harvey, ''Any Old Dollars Mister'', p.&nbsp;41
#*:The huge [[Maori]] put the [[Yank]] down... ‘By [[Kori]],’ he said with a kind smile. ‘That was a '''cracker''' [[yarn]], [[mate]].’

===References===
* ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st&nbsp;ed. "cracker, ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1893.
* Partridge, Eric. ''A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'', Macmillan (New York), 1961.


[[cs:cracker]]
[[cs:cracker]]

Revision as of 20:57, 30 June 2014

See also: crackers

English

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Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From (deprecated template usage) crack (verb) + (deprecated template usage) er (forming nouns of agency).

Noun

cracker (plural crackers)

  1. Someone who or something that cracks, particularly:
    1. Something that breaks with a dry, sharp noise, particularly:
      1. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A thin, small, and hard baked good, usually salty or savory; a savoury biscuit.
        • 1739 in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1868), Vol. XII, p. 296:
          Wee haue... sent a box of Crakers to you.
        • 1781, William Moss, An Essay on the Management & Nursing of Children in the Earlier Periods of Infancy, p. 108:
          Hard biscuit, commonly called crackers, are sometimes given; but they are heavy, owing to their being made without yeast and not fermented.
      2. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "cracker bonbon" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E., a small piece of candy which explodes when its wrapper is pulled from both ends.
        • 1841, Andrew Smith, "Delightful People" in The Mirror, Vol. XXXVII. 404:
          He exploded a cracker bonbon.
        • 1844, Albert R. Smith, The adventures of Mr. Ledbury and his friend Jack Johnson, Vol. II, Ch. iii, p. 44:
          They paid compliments, and said clever things, and pulled crackers.
        • 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship of Ring, Ch. i, p. 45:
          The crumbs and cracker-paper, the forgotten bags and gloves and handkerchiefs.
      3. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "Christmas cracker" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E., a similarly-wrapped holiday candy.
      4. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A crash, a breakdown.
        • 1869 November 8, Daily News (Farmer):
          He's gone a cracker over head and ears.
    2. Something that makes a similar dry, sharp noise, particularly:
      1. A firecracker, fireworks that burst with a sharp report.
        • ante 1592, Robert Greene, The historie of Orlando Furioso, one of the twelue pieres of France, sig. Fv:
          Yes, yes, with squibs and crackers brauely.
        • 1661 November 5, Samuel Pepys, Diary (1970), II. 208:
          Seeing the boys in the street fling their Crackers.
        • 1702, Daniel Defoe, Reformation of Manners: a satyr:
          These are the Squibs and Crackers of the Law, Which Hiss, and make a Bounce, and then withdraw.
      2. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A popper, a twisted string attached to the end of a whip or lash.
        • 1835, J.W. Monett in Joseph H. Ingraham, The South-west: By a Yankee, Vol. II., Appendix, p. 288:
          To the end of the lash is attached a soft, dry, buckskin cracker... So soft is the cracker, that a person who has not the sleight of using the whip, could scarcely hurt a child with it.
      3. (slang, obsolete) A barker, a pistol or handgun.
        • 1751, Thomas Smollett, The adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Vol. I, Ch. xxviii, p. 215:
          'As we are on shore, you and I must crack a pistol at one another...'
          '...I don't value your crackers of a rope's end.'
      4. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A rapid, rattling pace.
        • 1871 November 1, Daily News (Farmer):
          The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the straight a cracker.
        • 1891, N. Gould, Double Event, p. 124:
          Rob Roy made the pace a cracker past the sheds.
        • 1892 April 9, Field, 514/2:
          The deer... went a rare cracker over Shirt Hill.
      5. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "zoology" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A cracker butterfly, a member of any of several related species in the genus Hamadryas.
        • 1993, Charles Hogue, Latin American Insects and Entomology, p. 345:
          On the approach of another individual, a male cracker lurches from its perch and fights off the intruder. Such encounters are usually punctuated by crackling or clicking noises that the butterflies themselves emit.
    3. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "obsolete" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Someone who talks big, a braggart, a boaster; by extension:
      1. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "slang" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A tall tale; a lie, a false statement.
        • ante 1625, J. Fletcher, Womans Prize, Act III, Scene v from Comedies & Tragedies (1647), sig. Ppppp/1:
          ...Crackers
          Put now upon me?
        • 1871 July 24, Daily News:
          Learning to tell lies, and call them ‘crackers’.
      2. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Poor white trash in the South.
        • 1766 June 27, Gavin Cochrane, Letter to the Earl of Dartmouth:
          I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, who often change their places of abode.
        • 1772, J. Habersham, Letters (1904), p. 204:
          Persons who... live by hunting and plundering the industrious Setlers... The people I refer to are really what you and I understand by Crackers.
        • 1784, London Chronicle, No. 4287:
          Maryland, the back settlements of which colony had since the peace been greatly disturbed by the inroads of that hardy banditti well known by the name of Crackers.
        • 1850, C. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S., Vol. II, p. 73:
          Sometimes... my host would be of the humblest class of ‘crackers’, or some low, illiterate German or Irish emigrants.
        • 1856, F.L. Olmsted, Journey through the Slave States, p. 548:
          The operatives in the cotton-mills are said to be mainly ‘Cracker girls’ (poor whites from the country).
      3. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A Georgian, a native of the American state of Georgia.
        • 1767 September 21, New York Mercury in Mag. Amer. Hist. (1878), Vol. II, p. 250:
          A number of people called Crackers, who live above Augusta, in the province of Georgia, had gone in a hostile manner to... Okonee.
        • 1888 July, Harper's Magazine, p. 240:
          They will live like the crackers of Georgia or the moonshiners of Tennessee.
      4. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A Floridian, a native of the American state of Florida, especially (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "historical" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. early cowboys of the area.
        • 1866, Whitelaw Reid, After the War: A Southern Tour, p. 165:
          A returned Rebel soldier had found a pretty little cracker girl, scarcely fourteen years old,... whom, by promises of toys and a new dress, he had induced clandestinely to marry him. The poor girl's mother was distressed, took the girl away, and refused to recognize the marriage. The Rebel soldier came to town, found the girl and her mother here, and seized upon the child, vowing that she must straightway come home with him, or he would kill her. The people of the town did not seem to think the affair unusual, or requiring any attention... Perhaps the incident is as good an illustration of the Florida cracker stage of civilization as could have been found.
        • 1870 November, J.S. Bradford, "Crackers" in Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. VI., No. 29; p. 458:
          The Florida Cracker... is usually an emigrant from Georgia—often coming from near the Tennessee line.
      5. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Any white person, whitey.
        • 1964 April 3, Malcolm X, "The Ballot or the Bullet":
          It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting some cracker senators, Northern crackers and Southern crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights. There's no white man going to tell me anything about my rights.
        • 2008, Louis C.K., "I Enjoy Being White" on Chewed Up:
          I’m a white man, you can’t even hurt my feelings! What can you really call a white man that really digs deep? 'Hey cracker!' ... 'Oh, ruined my day. Boy, shouldn’t have called me a cracker, bringing me back to owning land and people. What a drag.'
  2. Someone who or something that causes another to crack, particularly:
    • ante 1659, Francis Osborne, Political Reflections upon the Government of the Turks (1673), 344:
      The Tongues being at the best but the Crackers of Knowledge: the Kernel remaining useless... till picked and dressed by Employment and Experience.
    1. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "zoology" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. The Northern pintail (Anas acuta), a kind of duck.
      • 1678, John Ray translating Francis Willughby as The ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton, p. 376:
        The Sea-Pheasant or Cracker: Anas caudacuta.
    2. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "often in plural" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "nutcracker" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.
      • 1799, Robert Southey, Nondescripts, vi:
        It were an easy thing to crack that nut
        Or with thy crackers or thy double teeth.
    3. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. The teeth.
      • 1815 August 9, Charles Lamb, letter in The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb (1978), Vol. III, p. 174:
        I conjecture my full-happinessed friend is picking his crackers.
    4. (deprecated template usage) (historical) A pair of fluted rolls for grinding latex.
      • 1874, Edward H. Knight, The practical dictionary of mechanics:
        Cracker... 3. One of the deeply grooved iron cylinders which revolve in pairs and grind the tough, raw caoutchouc.
    5. A cracking plant, a machine or facility in which large hydrocarbons are broken into smaller ones.
      • 1951 August 11, The Economist, p. 358:
        The modern catalytic cracker... may use as many as 350 instruments measuring and controlling such variables as flow, pressure and temperature.
    6. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "computing" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A system cracker, a hacker who breaks into computer programs or networks.
      • 1984 May 7, “Letters” in InfoWorld, Vol. VI, No. 19, p. 6:
        Syscracker is a hackerish shorthand word that means “system cracker” and refers to a specific subclass of hackers that spends a significant portion of its time breaking into computer systems.
      • 2002, Steve Jones, Encyclopedia of New Media, p. 1925:
        Likewise, early software pirates and "crackers" often used phrases like "information wants to be free" to protest the regulations against the copying of proprietary software packages and computer systems.
Usage notes

The divergent meaning of "biscuit" in British and American English partially derives from the popularity of "cracker" as a term to describe hard baked flour wafers in American English. Generally speaking, American "crackers" are the salty or 'savoury' British "biscuits" while American "cookies" are the sweet British "biscuits".

The racial slur is now popularly derived from the cracking of slave masters' whips and formerly supposed to be derived from cowboys' whips or an abbreviation of (deprecated template usage) corn-cracker, but these derivations lack documentary support.

Derived terms
Derived terms

Template:rel-mid

Synonyms
  • (noisemaker on a whip): popper
  • (white person): See whitey
  • (one who defeats software security): hacker
Translations

Verb

cracker (third-person singular simple present crackers, present participle crackering, simple past and past participle crackered)

  1. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "transitive" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. To pelt with crackers.
    • 1870 November 5, Pall Mall Gazette, p. 5:
      They may not squib and cracker the inhabitants.

Etymology 2

See crake.

Noun

cracker (plural crackers)

  1. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "zoology" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. The corncrake (Crex crex).
    • 1885, Charles Swainson, Provincial names and folk lore of British birds, p. 177:
      Corn Crake... Creck, Cracker, or Craker (North; Salop). Bean crake, or Bean cracker (South Pembroke).

Etymology 3

Uncertain, probably from various slang senses of (deprecated template usage) crack as a noun ("something or someone approaching perfection; a truly excellent racehorse; a resounding blow"), but possibly from Etymology 1 above, from dialectical variants of related words (cf. (deprecated template usage) corker, (deprecated template usage) gimcrack), or from rhyming slang.

Noun

cracker (usually uncountable, plural crackers)

  1. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "chiefly" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. A large amount of money.
    • 1861, G.J. Whyte-Melville, Good for Nothing, Vol. I, Chapter vi, p. 70:
      I remember... Belphegor's year. What a cracker I stood to win on him and the Rejected!
    • 1942, L.V. Berrey & al., The American Thesaurus of Slang, §559/7:
      Large sum of money... cracker.
  2. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "slang" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. An outstanding specimen, a truly excellent thing; an attractive, engaging, or admirable person; a beautiful woman.
    • 1891, J.S. Farmer & al., Slang, Vol. II, p. 201/2:
      Cracker... anything approaching perfection.
    • 1977 August 20, The Economist, p. 13/1:
      The United States has got itself a cracker of a deal in the treaty to end its 74-year control of the Panama Canal Zone.
    • 2011 January 15, Saj Chowdhury, "Man City 4 - 3 Wolves" for BBC News:
      And just before the interval, Kolarov, who was having one of his better games in a City shirt, fizzed in a cracker from 30 yards which the Wolves stopper unconvincingly pushed behind for a corner.
  3. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "Australia" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. The merest or meanest conceivable amount of money.
    • 1934, W. S. Howard, You're Telling Me! p. 300:
      What about money?... We haven't got a cracker.
    • 1965, R.H. Conquest, Horses in the Kitchen, p. 62:
      I bet you haven't saved a cracker, eh?
Usage notes

The use of "cracker" in slang senses of truly excellent predates (deprecated template usage) crackerjack and does not derive from it, as is sometimes proposed.

The Oxford English Dictionary cites S.J. Baker's 1941 Popular Dictionary of Australian Slang as an authority that "cracker" originally referred (for some unknown reason) to a £1 note. G.A. Wilkes's 1978 Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms avers that there is no evidence it has ever been used in any other sense than its present one, where it is invariably used negatively to mean "not one red cent", "not a penny".

Adjective

cracker (comparative more cracker, superlative most cracker)

  1. (deprecated template usage) Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "chiefly" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Outstanding, truly excellent, exceptional.
    • 1964, N.B. Harvey, Any Old Dollars Mister, p. 41
      The huge Maori put the Yank down... ‘By Kori,’ he said with a kind smile. ‘That was a cracker yarn, mate.’

References

  • Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "cracker, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1893.
  • Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Macmillan (New York), 1961.
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