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

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

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 Day, Holman

I'll be gee-whizzly-gol-dusted if he ain't a malleable-iron-double-back-action self-adjusting corn-cracker.'

From Black Rock: a Tale of the Selkirks by Connor, Ralph

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 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