A.Word.A.Day --cracker-barrel

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Jul 1, 2024

This week’s theme
Americanisms

This week’s words
cracker-barrel
jamboree
lickety-split
ripstaver
hunky-dory

“Cleaner than the Cracker Barrel
Sunshine L.-W. Soda Crackers
No more ordinary bulk crackers for you”

Ad in The May Bugle, May, Oklahoma
Oct 2, 1913

Image: Newspapers

Previous week’s theme
There’s a word for it

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

What comes to mind when you think of America, especially American exports? Maybe you think of jumbo jets, software, e-commerce, all of which are done right here where I live, in the Seattle area.

Maybe you think of American music -- genres like jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, and the global phenomenon that is Taylor Swift. Or maybe Hollywood movies, from Charlie Chaplin to Mickey Mouse to Avatar to Frozen.

However, our most ubiquitous and widely recognized export might surprise you. It’s not a product or a piece of technology but a simple two-letter word: OK. This seemingly unremarkable term has become a universal symbol of understanding, used and recognized across continents.

Yes, we make words too, though not all our word products are as widely known as “OK”. It’s time to shine a light on more of these linguistic creations. As we celebrate America’s 248th birthday this Jul 4, let’s spotlight five Americanisms -- words that were Made in America, born in the USA.

cracker-barrel

PRONUNCIATION:

(KRAK-uhr bar-uhl)

MEANING:

adjective: Plain, rustic, homespun, direct, or unsophisticated.

ETYMOLOGY:

From cracker (wafer), from crack, from Old English cracian (to resound) + barrel, from Old French baril, from Latin barriclus (small cask). Also see pork barrel and double-barreled. Earliest documented use: 1877.

NOTES:

Cracker barrels were barrels containing loose crackers (thin crisp biscuits or wafers). Customers would fill a bag to buy however much they needed. The empty barrels were often used as tables or stations around which people gathered to trade gossip. The term evolved to mean plain, rustic, or unsophisticated, alluding to the old-style country stores where these conversations took place. See also furphy and scuttlebutt.

USAGE:

“Quoting the cracker-barrel wisdom of a sales manager he knows, Dr. Grossman cautions each and every senior manager not to ‘tell a guy about your grass seed until you know something about his lawn.’”
Joseph F. McKenna; Close Encounters of the Executive Kind; Industry Week (Nashville, Tennessee); Sep 6, 1993.

See more usage examples of cracker-barrel in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation. -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1 Jul 1742-1799)

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