corn-cracker

American  

[kawrn-krak-er] / ˈkɔrnˌkræk ər /

noun

Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.

1. a contemptuous term used to refer to a member of a class of poor white people in the southern U.S.

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Sensitivity

This term is used with disparaging intent and is perceived as insulting, being similar in connotation to redneck and hillbilly. Corn-cracker originally referred to a native of Kentucky or Georgia, but has come to apply broadly to any poor white person in the South. See also cracker.

Etymology

Origin of corn-cracker

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35; corn ¹ + cracker

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

corn-cracker

I do not know whether my back-woods friend, or the Parisian pavior, was the first inventor of this composition, but I am satisfied the corn-cracker had not stolen it from the stone-cracker.

From Among the Pines or, South in Secession Time by James R. Gilmore

Come, Auntie, we'll make a corn-cracker a' you, until such time as we can put yer old bones in trim to send south.

From Our World, Or, the Slaveholder's Daughter by F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams

In the words of Mr. Snell, when he came out from behind the watering-trough: "It was a corn-cracker!"

From The Skipper and the Skipped Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul by Holman Day

I do not know whether my backwoods friend or the Parisian pavior was the first inventor of this composition; but I am satisfied the corn-cracker had not stolen it from the stone-cracker.

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

For several days she was delirious and her life despaired of; but throughout the whole, the noble corn-cracker, neglecting every thing, remained beside her.

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

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