Crack (craic)
Encyclopedia
"Craic" or "crack" is a term for fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation, particularly prominent in Ireland
. It is often used with the definite article
– the craic. The word has an unusual history; the form craic was borrowed into Irish
from the English
crack in the mid-20th century, and the Irish spelling was then reborrowed
into English. Under either spelling, the craic has great cultural currency and significance in Ireland.
, gossip
", which influences the common Irish expression "What's the crack?" or "How's the crack?", meaning "how are you?", "how have you been?", or "have you any news?" The context involving 'news' and 'gossip' originated in Northern English
and the Scots language
. This sense entered into Hiberno-English
from the Ulster Scots dialect in Northern Ireland
, some time in the mid-20th century. Early Irish citations from the Irish Independent
relate to rural Ulster
: from 1950, "There was much good 'crack'... in the edition of Country Magazine which covered Northern Ireland"; or from 1955, "the Duke pulled the bolt on the door of the piggery, and let Coogan's old sow out...The Duke had been sitting on top of Kelly's gate watching the crack." It can frequently be found in the work of twentieth century Ulster writers such as Brian Friel
(1980): You never saw such crack in your life, boys and Jennifer Johnston
(1977): I'm sorry if I muscled in on Saturday. Did I spoil your crack?.
Like many other words over the centuries, 'crack' was borrowed
into the Irish language
with the Gaelicized spelling
craic. It was in use as early as the 1960s, and was popularized in the catchphrase 'Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn' ('We'll have music, chat and craic'), used by Seán Bán Breathnach
for his Irish-language chatshow SBB ina Shuí, broadcast on RTÉ
from 1976 to 1982. The Irish spelling was soon reborrowed
into English, and is attested in publications from the 1970s and '80s. Craic has also been used in Scottish Gaelic since at least the 1990s, though it is unknown if it was borrowed directly from Irish or from English.
At first the craic form was uncommon outside of Irish, even in an Irish context. Barney Rush's 1960s song "The Crack Was Ninety in the Isle of Man
" does not use the Irish-language spelling, neither is it used in Christy Moore
's 1978 version. However, The Dubliners
' 2006 version adopts the Irish spelling. The title of Four to the Bar
's 1994 concert album, Craic on the Road
, uses the Irish-language spelling as an English-language pun.
Now, 'craic' is interpreted as a specifically and quintessentially Irish form of fun. The adoption of the Gaelic spelling has reinforced the sense that this is an independent word (homophone
) rather than a separate sense of the original word (polysemy
). Frank McNally of The Irish Times
has said of the word, "[m]ost Irish people now have no idea it's foreign."
Alternatively, Edward Dwelly, in his Gaelic-English Dictionary, shows a possible evolution of the word from the Gaelic words cracaire and cnacair, n., meaning 'a boaster, a jester, a talker' (Dwelly, 216, 217, 259.)
column "The Words We Use" that "the constant Gaelicisation of the good old English-Scottish dialect word crack as craic sets my teeth on edge." In his Companion to Irish Traditional Music, Fintan Vallely suggests that use of craic in English is largely an exercise on the part of Irish pubs
to make money through the commercialisation of traditional Irish music.
, information science
s professor Eileen M. Trauth notes craic as an intrinsic part of the culture of sociability that distinguished the Irish workplace from those of other countries. Trauth found that even as Ireland transitions away from an economy and society dominated by agriculture
, the traditional importance of atmosphere and the art of conversation – craic – remains, and that the social life is a fundamental part of workers' judgment of quality of life
.
Critics have accused the Irish tourism industry and the promoters of Irish theme pubs of marketing 'commodified craic' as a kind of stereotypical Irishness.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. It is often used with the definite article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
– the craic. The word has an unusual history; the form craic was borrowed into Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
from the English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
crack in the mid-20th century, and the Irish spelling was then reborrowed
Reborrowing
Reborrowing is the process where a word travels from one language to another and then back to the originating language in a different form or with a different meaning.This is indicated by A→B→A, where A is the originating language....
into English. Under either spelling, the craic has great cultural currency and significance in Ireland.
History
An older, related, more widespread, sense of crack is "joke", as in crack a joke or wise-crack. Another sense of crack, found in the north of England, is "newsNews
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
, gossip
Gossip
Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others, It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing facts and views, but also has a reputation for the introduction of errors and variations into the information transmitted...
", which influences the common Irish expression "What's the crack?" or "How's the crack?", meaning "how are you?", "how have you been?", or "have you any news?" The context involving 'news' and 'gossip' originated in Northern English
Northern English
Northern English is a group of dialects of the English language. It includes the North East England dialects, which are similar in some respects to Scots....
and the Scots language
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
. This sense entered into Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English is the dialect of English written and spoken in Ireland .English was first brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion of the late 12th century. Initially it was mainly spoken in an area known as the Pale around Dublin, with Irish spoken throughout the rest of the country...
from the Ulster Scots dialect in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, some time in the mid-20th century. Early Irish citations from the Irish Independent
Irish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...
relate to rural Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
: from 1950, "There was much good 'crack'... in the edition of Country Magazine which covered Northern Ireland"; or from 1955, "the Duke pulled the bolt on the door of the piggery, and let Coogan's old sow out...The Duke had been sitting on top of Kelly's gate watching the crack." It can frequently be found in the work of twentieth century Ulster writers such as Brian Friel
Brian Friel
Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...
(1980): You never saw such crack in your life, boys and Jennifer Johnston
Jennifer Johnston
Jennifer Johnston is an Irish novelist, winner of the Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest in 1979, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1977...
(1977): I'm sorry if I muscled in on Saturday. Did I spoil your crack?.
Like many other words over the centuries, 'crack' was borrowed
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
into the Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
with the Gaelicized spelling
Irish orthography
Irish orthography has evolved over many centuries, since Old Irish was first written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 6th century AD. Prior to that, Primitive Irish was written in Ogham...
craic. It was in use as early as the 1960s, and was popularized in the catchphrase 'Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn' ('We'll have music, chat and craic'), used by Seán Bán Breathnach
Seán Bán Breathnach
Seán Bán Breathnach is a radio and television broadcaster and personality in the Ireland. He broadcasts in the medium of the Irish language, but is well known to English speakers in the country.-Broadcasting:...
for his Irish-language chatshow SBB ina Shuí, broadcast on RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
from 1976 to 1982. The Irish spelling was soon reborrowed
Reborrowing
Reborrowing is the process where a word travels from one language to another and then back to the originating language in a different form or with a different meaning.This is indicated by A→B→A, where A is the originating language....
into English, and is attested in publications from the 1970s and '80s. Craic has also been used in Scottish Gaelic since at least the 1990s, though it is unknown if it was borrowed directly from Irish or from English.
At first the craic form was uncommon outside of Irish, even in an Irish context. Barney Rush's 1960s song "The Crack Was Ninety in the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
" does not use the Irish-language spelling, neither is it used in Christy Moore
Christy Moore
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
's 1978 version. However, The Dubliners
The Dubliners
The Dubliners are an Irish folk band founded in 1962.-Formation and history:The Dubliners, initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group", formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin...
' 2006 version adopts the Irish spelling. The title of Four to the Bar
Four to the Bar
Four to the Bar was an Irish band in New York City during the early to mid 1990s.From its beginnings as one more hard-drinking pub band from the boroughs, it ventured into a neotraditional fusion of pop, rock, and Irish and American folk....
's 1994 concert album, Craic on the Road
Craic on the Road (album)
Craic on the Road: Live at Sam Maguire's was the first full-length album by Four to the Bar, released in 1994.- Track listing :#I'll Tell Me Ma #Waxie's Dargle/The Rare Old Mountain Dew #My Love's in Germany...
, uses the Irish-language spelling as an English-language pun.
Now, 'craic' is interpreted as a specifically and quintessentially Irish form of fun. The adoption of the Gaelic spelling has reinforced the sense that this is an independent word (homophone
Homophone
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
) rather than a separate sense of the original word (polysemy
Polysemy
Polysemy is the capacity for a sign or signs to have multiple meanings , i.e., a large semantic field.Charles Fillmore and Beryl Atkins’ definition stipulates three elements: the various senses of a polysemous word have a central origin, the links between these senses form a network, and ...
). Frank McNally of The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
has said of the word, "[m]ost Irish people now have no idea it's foreign."
Alternatively, Edward Dwelly, in his Gaelic-English Dictionary, shows a possible evolution of the word from the Gaelic words cracaire and cnacair, n., meaning 'a boaster, a jester, a talker' (Dwelly, 216, 217, 259.)
Criticism of the spelling craic
The spelling craic has attracted some criticism. English language specialist Diarmaid Ó Muirithe wrote in his Irish TimesThe Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
column "The Words We Use" that "the constant Gaelicisation of the good old English-Scottish dialect word crack as craic sets my teeth on edge." In his Companion to Irish Traditional Music, Fintan Vallely suggests that use of craic in English is largely an exercise on the part of Irish pubs
Public houses in Ireland
Public houses in Ireland, usually known as pubs, are establishments licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. Irish pubs are to be found in cities throughout Europe and North America.-Spirit grocers:...
to make money through the commercialisation of traditional Irish music.
Sociology
The craic has become a vital part of Irish culture. In a 2001 review of the modern Irish information economyInformation economy
Information economy is a term that characterizes an economy with an increased emphasis on informational activities and information industry.The vagueness of the term has three major sources...
, information science
Information science
-Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...
s professor Eileen M. Trauth notes craic as an intrinsic part of the culture of sociability that distinguished the Irish workplace from those of other countries. Trauth found that even as Ireland transitions away from an economy and society dominated by agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, the traditional importance of atmosphere and the art of conversation – craic – remains, and that the social life is a fundamental part of workers' judgment of quality of life
Quality of life
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...
.
Critics have accused the Irish tourism industry and the promoters of Irish theme pubs of marketing 'commodified craic' as a kind of stereotypical Irishness.