Cracker
WordNet
noun
(1) A party favor consisting of a paper roll (usually containing candy or a small favor) that pops when pulled at both ends
(2) Firework consisting of a small explosive charge and fuse in a heavy paper casing
(3) A thin crisp wafer made of flour and water with or without leavening and shortening; unsweetened or semisweet
(4) A programmer who `cracks' (gains unauthorized access to) computers, typically to do malicious things
"Crackers are often mistakenly called hackers"
(5) A poor white person in the southern United States
WiktionaryText
Etymology 1
From the verb to crack. Hard "bread/biscuit" sense first attested 1739, though "hard wafer" sense attested 1440.
Noun
- A dry, thin, crispy, and usually salty or savory biscuit.
- 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.
- A firecracker.
- A person or thing that cracks, or that cracks a thing (e.g. whip cracker; nutcracker).
- A Christmas cracker
- Refinery equipment used to pyrolyse organic feedstocks. If catalyst is used to aid pyrolysis it is informally called a cat-cracker
- A fine thing or person (crackerjack).
- She's an absolute cracker! The show was a cracker!
- A person who cracks, (i.e. overcomes) computer software or security restrictions to enable unrestricted use or for malicious purpose.
Etymology 2
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 assumes it was applied due to Georgia and Florida settlers (Florida crackers) who cracked loud whips to drive herds of cattle, or, alternately, 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. An early reference that supports this sense is a letter dated June 27, 1766 from Gavin Cochrane 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."
Noun
- An impoverished white person from the SE United States, originally associated with Georgia and parts of Florida; or, (by extension) white people generally.