corn-cracker

[ kawrn-krak-er ]

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.

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. cracker.

Word History and Origins

Origin of corn-cracker¹

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

Example Sentences

Glad you 'uns found old corn-cracker up the gulch.

From Project Gutenberg

"Don't beg any thing for me, Mr. K——," growled the Colonel through his barred teeth, "I'll fight the d——d corn-cracker, and his whole race, at once."

From Project Gutenberg

No," he replied, "he's a North Carolina 'corn-cracker,' one of the ugliest specimens of humanity extant.

From Project Gutenberg

We then left the cabin, and when out of hearing of the blacks, I said to the corn-cracker: "That may be Scripture doctrine, but I have not been taught so!"

From Project Gutenberg

"D——d ef I doant b'lieve 'twud make her love th' little nig like I do;" replied the corn-cracker, taking him up on his knee as tenderly as he would have taken up his own child.

From Project Gutenberg