A 1783 pejorative use of crackers specified men who "descended from convicts that were transported from Great Britain to Virginia at different times, and inherit so much profligacy from their ancestors, that they are the most abandoned set of men on earth".[5] Benjamin Franklin, in his memoirs (1790), referred to "a race of runnagates and crackers, equally wild and savage as the Indians" who inhabit the "desert[ed] woods and mountains".[6]
The term could have also derived from the Middle English cnac, craic, or crak, which originally meant the sound of a cracking whip but came to refer to "loud conversation, bragging talk".[7] In the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) this could refer to "entertaining conversation" (one may be said to "crack" a joke) and cracker could be used to describe loud braggarts; this term is still in use in Ireland, Scotland and Northern England, also adopted into Gaelic and Irish as craic in the late 20th century. It is documented in William Shakespeare's King John (c. 1595): "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?"[8][9] This usage is illustrated in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth which reads:[10]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_(term)
EtymologyEdit
A 1783 pejorative use of crackers specified men who "descended from convicts that were transported from Great Britain to Virginia at different times, and inherit so much profligacy from their ancestors, that they are the most abandoned set of men on earth".[5] Benjamin Franklin, in his memoirs (1790), referred to "a race of runnagates and crackers, equally wild and savage as the Indians" who inhabit the "desert[ed] woods and mountains".[6]
The term could have also derived from the Middle English cnac, craic, or crak, which originally meant the sound of a cracking whip but came to refer to "loud conversation, bragging talk".[7] In the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) this could refer to "entertaining conversation" (one may be said to "crack" a joke) and cracker could be used to describe loud braggarts; this term is still in use in Ireland, Scotland and Northern England, also adopted into Gaelic and Irish as craic in the late 20th century. It is documented in William Shakespeare's King John (c. 1595): "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?"[8][9] This usage is illustrated in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth which reads:[10]
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