Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#CRACKERCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#CRACKER craker (“a boaster”), equivalent to crack (“to break, snap, utter, make a sound”) +‎ -erCategory:English terms suffixed with -er (agent noun)#CRACKER. From crack (verb), the sound made when one is broken. The hard "bread" and "biscuit" sense is first attested in 1739.

The computing senses of cracker, crack, and cracking were promoted in the 1980s as an alternative to hacker, by programmers concerned about negative public associations of hack, hacking (“creative computer coding”). See Citations:cracker.

Various theories exist regarding the 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 (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 Elizabethan times to describe braggarts (see crack (“to boast”)); a letter from 1766 supports this theory.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• enPR: krăk'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈkɹækə(ɹ)/Category:English 2-syllable words#CRACKERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#CRACKER

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#CRACKER
• Rhymes: -ækə(ɹ)Category:Rhymes:English/ækə(ɹ)#CRACKERCategory:Rhymes:English/ækə(ɹ)/2 syllables#CRACKER

Noun

cracker (plural crackers)Category:English lemmas#CRACKERCategory:English nouns#CRACKERCategory:English countable nouns#CRACKERCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CRACKERCategory:Pages with entries#CRACKERCategory:Pages with 2 entries#CRACKER

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#CRACKER) A noisy boaster; a swaggering fellow.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     What cracker is this same that deafs our ears?

     Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

2. A dry, thin, crispy baked bread (usually salty or savoury, but sometimes sweet, as in the case of graham crackers and animal crackers).

   Synonym: (UK, Australia) biscuit

   Coordinate terms: biscuit, brittle, cookie, chip, crisp, hardtack, snap, toast, wafer

3. A prawn cracker.
   • 1929 February 10, The Sunday Times, Sydney, page 26, column 7:

     There was feasting and joy from Shanghai to the Wall,
     What with dim-sims, chop-suey and crackers and all,
     And the donor of these, by the hook of my crook.
     Was Chiang Ki-Konglong, the Mandarin Cook.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

4. The final section of certain whips, which is made of a short, thin piece of unravelled rope, or which is a short piece of twisted string tied to the end of the whip, which produces a distinctive cracking sound when the whip is cracked.

   Synonyms: popper, snapper

5. A firecracker.
6. A Christmas cracker.
   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 146:

     It is customary in every part of China to fire off crackers on the last day and night of the year for the purpose of terrifying expelling the devils.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

7. (UKCategory:British English#CRACKER) A northern pintail, a dabbling duck of species Anas acuta.
8. A person or thing that breaks a thing (e.g., nutcracker).

   a lobster and crab shell crackerCategory:English terms with usage examples#CRACKER

   1. Refinery equipment used to pyrolyse organic feedstocks. If catalyst is used to aid pyrolysis it is informally called a cat-cracker
   2. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#CRACKER) A pair of fluted rolls for grinding caoutchouc.^[4]
   3. (computingCategory:en:Computing#CRACKER) One who cracks (i.e. overcomes) computer software or security restrictions.

      Synonyms: black hat, hacker

      Coordinate term: script kiddie

      • 1984, Richard Sedric Fox Eells, Peter Raymond Nehemkis, Corporate Intelligence and Espionage: A Blueprint for Executive Decision Making, Macmillan, page 137:

        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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

        Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
      • 2002, Steve Jones, Encyclopedia of New Media, page 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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

        Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
9. (slangCategory:English slang#CRACKER, chiefly BritishCategory:British English#CRACKER, IrelandCategory:Irish English#CRACKER, AustraliaCategory:Australian English#CRACKER, New ZealandCategory:New Zealand English#CRACKER) A fine, great thing or person (crackerjack).

   She's an absolute cracker!Category:English terms with usage examples#CRACKER

   The show was a cracker!Category:English terms with usage examples#CRACKER

   A cracker of a day.Category:English terms with usage examples#CRACKER

   • 2011 January 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 4 - 3 Wolves”, in BBC‎:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

10. (Discuss⁽⁺⁾ this sense)Category:Tea room#CRACKERCategory:Requests for attention concerning English#CRACKER An ambitious or hard-working person (i.e. someone who arises at the 'crack' of dawn).
12. (USCategory:American English#CRACKER, derogatoryCategory:English derogatory terms#CRACKER, ethnic slurCategory:English ethnic slurs#CRACKER, offensiveCategory:English offensive terms#CRACKER) An impoverished white person from the southeastern United States, originally associated with Georgia and parts of Florida; (by extension) any white person (slang).

    Synonyms: corn-cracker, honky, peckerwood, redneck, trailer trash, white trash, whitey, wonderbread; see also Thesaurus:white person

    • 1970, “(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go”, in Curtis, performed by Curtis Mayfield:

      Brothers and the whiteys / Blacks and the crackers / Police and their backers / They're all political actors

      Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

    • 1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy, spoken by Hooper (Dwight Ewell):

      Check this shit: You got cracker farm boy Luke Skywalker, Nazi poster boy, blond hair, blue eyes. And then you got Darth Vader, the blackest brother in the galaxy, Nubian god!

      Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

    • 2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 202:

      “You know that old cracker beat them boys.”

      Category:English terms with quotations#CRACKER

References

• “cracker”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Further reading

• cracker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• cracker (term) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• recrack

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkrɛkr̩]Category:Czech terms with IPA pronunciation#CRACKER
• Hyphenation: cra‧c‧ker

Noun

cracker m inanCategory:Czech lemmas#CRACKERCategory:Czech nouns#CRACKERCategory:Czech entries with incorrect language header#CRACKERCategory:Czech masculine nouns#CRACKERCategory:Czech inanimate nouns#CRACKERCategory:Pages with entries#CRACKERCategory:Pages with 2 entries#CRACKER

1. alternative form of krekr

Noun

cracker m anim (female equivalent crackerka)Category:Czech lemmas#CRACKERCategory:Czech nouns#CRACKERCategory:Czech entries with incorrect language header#CRACKERCategory:Czech masculine nouns#CRACKERCategory:Czech animate nouns#CRACKERCategory:Pages with entries#CRACKERCategory:Pages with 2 entries#CRACKER

1. drug user