▪ I. corn-cracker
(ˈkɔːnˌkrækə(r))
1. U.S. A contemptuous name for a ‘poor white’ in the Southern States (? from his subsisting on corn or maize); a ‘cracker’. Also, a native of Kentucky.
| 1835 Western Rev. June 342 There is neither wit nor meaning in the terms Hoosier, Sucker, Corncracker, and Buckeye, which have become so current. 1837–40 Haliburton Clockmaker (1862) 318 There's the hoosier of Indiana, the suckers of Illinois..and the corn⁓crackers of Virginia. 1845 Olympia Pioneer (Th.), Corn-crackers, Potsoppers, Hard Heads, Hawk Eyes, Rackensacks, etc. 1848–60 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Corn-cracker, the nickname for a native of Kentucky. 1878 N. H. Bishop Voy. Paper Canoe 228 That class of..people called in the south—because they subsist largely upon corn—Corn Crackers, or Crackers. These Crackers are the ‘poor white folks’ of the planter. 1940 H. H. Hatcher Buckeye Country 298, I never in my life heard a Buckeye get into his voice that quiver of ecstasy that is second nature to a Corn⁓cracker when he mentions his bluegrass and his mountains and his folks. |
2. An apparatus for cracking corn.
| 1844 Lee & Frost Oregon xii. 134 At the mission we had a small cast-iron corncracker, in which we ground wheat after a fashion. 1900 Smithwick Evol. State 76 There was a sawmill with a corn cracker attached. |
3. A species of ray-fish, Rhinoptera quadriloba, found on the south-eastern shores of the United States.
▪ II. corn-cracker
see corn-craker, and next.