I read a news article this am stating that George W. Bush had “cracked wise” in an interview.
What is the origin of that expression and “wise crack”?
As I understand it, in days of yore, “crack” meant “banter” or “conversation” or “talk.”
(I understand the word is still used that way in Ireland, where the phrase “good crack” will not arouse the suspicion of eavesdropping police officers.)
This is also supposedly the origin of the term “cracker” to refer to rural Southerners. A “cracker” was someone who talked a lot(or mouthed off, depending on how you look at it).
“Wise” just means smart-alecky in this context.
http://www.m-w.com has the first use of ‘wisecrack’ as 1924.
A possibility would be a sanitized version of “wise ass” (the last time I looked, everyone that has an ass also has the requisite anatomical “crack”). Also see “smart ass” (though I have no first hand knowledge of that animals’ intellectual capability).
Dang! I hate it when I don’t read the question! Note the order of the words, “cracked wise”. Some news wonk is taking a jab a the POTUS slight propensity for swapping words if there isn’t a teleprompter in sight.
It looks as if just about everyone in this thread has right on their side.
JE Lighter, American Slang, shows crack to mean a boast from 1523. The term cracker is first used in 1766 to mean just about what it means today. And in referring to the white, backwoods Southerners in a letter from that date, the writer stated that they got the name from being great boasters. But crackers at that time were a very lawless group of individuals who prayed on the established settlers.
Both wisecrack and crack wise showed up in print in the early 1920’s.
crack, meaning a sarcastic, ironic, etc. remark, seems to have appeared in print around the 1880’s.