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Peckerwood.
I heard this used to describe someone I know to be of excellent character and high morals. It appeared to have been used perjoratively. It's possible that the person using the term doesn't know the person about whom the term was used to be of excellent character and high morals. It's also possible that the person using the term knows something that you don't. I one time questioned a woman I worked with about her bad-mouthing her boss. I said that I thought he was a reasonably good person. She responded, "You're not a woman working under him."
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Oh wow, how did I miss this thread?!? First off, let's stop insulting my Dad (named Dick)(and it gets worse; his last name is Ball..)(no, I'm not joking, it really is...)
Next, "cracker". The term is a shortening of "whip cracker", as in the slave boss. Tell that to anyone who tries to use it to insult you. They'll probably never use it again! I never understood it either, until I was informed by a black colleague. And although I've worked with mostly black folks for more than 25 years, I don't recall ever hearing it. Maybe it has to do with the area, I don't know. :0)
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… Next, "cracker". The term is a shortening of "whip cracker", as in the slave boss. Tell that to anyone who tries to use it to insult you. They'll probably never use it again! I never understood it either, until I was informed by a black colleague. And although I've worked with mostly black folks for more than 25 years, I don't recall ever hearing it. Maybe it has to do with the area, I don't know. :0) Do you know of a dictionary or etymology resource that gives the origin of cracker as the shortening of “whip cracker”? I take that lone statement of origin to be apocryphal. Persons who were called crackers during the time of slavery were generally not plantation owners, and whip-cracking overseers were not nearly as numerous as the persons called crackers.
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Dave Wilton says that it comes from a 16th century term for 'liar' or 'braggart'. He says of the 'whipcracker' etymology that " [t]here is no evidence to support this contention." Dave Wilton is a pretty reliable source in these matters.
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Nope, I got nothin' other than what I was told by a source I respect, who doesn't publish on the internet. Don't know where he got it. Neither I nor he (nor you?) was around during those times to know. Don't know why he would tell me something he himself did not believe, so I assume he believed it. Other than that, I got nothin'... :0)
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When I was a kid in the South, I too was told 'cracker' came from whipcracker. I began to question that as I only heard it applied to po' white trash, not whites in general. What we may have here, twosleepy, is yet another folk etymology.
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cracker (pejorative) according to those wiki-stalwarts.
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I am willing to accept that. As I stated, I don't know. I have seen the "whip cracker" idea on the internet, so it is not unknown, but that doesn't make it correct. It is also possible that a term can arise from more than one source, or develop into usage in more than one place or time, which would preclude a definite, single-sourced etymology. I'm not saying that is the case here, but I think there's at least the possibility it could be.
Controversial postulation follows: Shouldn't descriptivism apply to etymologies as well as the words themselves? Then you must accept "folk etymology" as "real", because users of it have already done so. :0)
Last edited by twosleepy; 09/05/08 02:56 PM. Reason: make clearer to readers
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Controversial postulation follows: Shouldn't prescriptivism apply to etymologies as well as the words themselves? Then you must accept "folk etymology" as "real", because users of it have already done so. :0)
Sounds like you really meant descriptivism and no, it doesn't. Descriptivism says that you accept terms such as 'Jerusalem artichoke" which were formed by folk etymology but that doesn't mean that you have to accept the notion that they are artichokes or have anything to do with Jerusalem.
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Would be interesting to look at the etymology, or rather usage history (there is a difference) of terms like 'folk etymology.' It's a very bourgeois usage. Seems to be implying that the 'people', the great unwashed, that bunch of ordinary morons out there, as opposed to the elite grammarians and historians and other PhD experts, always get it wrong. 'Folk' in this context is synonymous with "false."
In other contexts this attitude can have quite sinister overtones. For example, just say a massacre of indigenous people occurred by members of the invading culture 120 years ago. Official records of the time say 30 natives were killed. But unwritten oral 'folk' lore passed down among the descendants of the indigenous people says it was more like 300. What is normally regarded as the more accurate? Just because something is not documented from its inception doesn't necessarily mean it is incorrect.
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