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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Sensitive Note

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

Example Sentences

When the Colonel, who had been closeted for a few minutes with Madam P——, came out of the house, we mounted, and rode off with the "corn-cracker."

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

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 Gilmore, James R.

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 Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)

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

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