# Phrase Origin Poly Wanna a Cracker

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-origin-poly-wanna-a-cracker/240896>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-origin-poly-wanna-a-cracker/240896 "2004-04-19T21:34:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-origin-poly-wanna-a-cracker/240896/1 "2004-04-19T21:34:17Z")

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Where did this phrase come from? My 5 year old relative busted that out on a Parrott this weekend and I wondered if it was hard wired [🙂]… I have no idea where he got that and neither did he. Failing finding where **he** got it I wondered …

Where did the phrase come from originally?

SDMB-GQ discussed it, sort of, 10 months ago and we got a reference that Polly has been a parrot name since 1616 … but nothing definitive on PWAC. Any ideas?

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=190212&highlight=polly+cracker](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=190212&highlight=polly+cracker)

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-origin-poly-wanna-a-cracker/240896/2 "2004-04-20T01:32:47Z")

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The phrase shows up in quite a few US newspapers as a humorous quip in 1891.

I can’t trace it back any farther at the moment.