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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Btw, to save me from looking it up, what the heck is a cracker? See,  
> you have exposed my ignorance.

The Gaelic word for casual conversation is 'craic' pronounced 'crack'.  It 
has crept into the English lagnuage wherever Gaelic speaking people made up 
part 
of the population.  A very many of the people who settled the South were of 
Celtic extraction and the word was in common use.   So a person who was 
always 
engaging in 'craic' was a 'cracker'.   

In the South the use of the term changed to mean not just conversation but 
boasting.  So a cracker meant a braggart.  

The term has racist overtones, both that calling somone a 'cracker' implies 
they are a biased white person and also the term is used as comeback to other 
racially latent words.

But also like so many pejorative terms, used among family and close friends, 
they can be terms of endearment, much like a spouse calling the other 'you 
old 
fool'.  I've heard many blacks that would take instant umbrage at the use of 
N, use the word among themselves much as above.  Like that, a good ol' boy 
might call another one a 'cracker' without offense, but used by someone else 
it 
might be very offensive.

I lived in Georgia for a while (East Point just outside of Atlanta, at least 
'outside' back then) and 'cracker' was viewed as an insult.   </HTML>