Crack

[Perry Lassiter]

I ran across the expression "crack shot" yestday and looked up "crack." As slang, both words go back to 1793! But in the process I found eight or ten uses of crack as a noun and almost as many as a verb. Several dictionaries trace it back centuries and consider it onomotopeic, but the wide range of meanings makes me wonder whether there may be other derivations as well.

[Slava]

On the surface, a simple word, but as often is the case, as we delve deeper, it gets more complicated.

For our English usage, I accept the idea that it's onomatopoeic, but what about the tie-in with the Dutch kraken and the Norwegian same?

In Dutch it's a cracking sound, in Norwegian it's a sea monster creating whirlpools off the shores of Norway.

I wonder if we'll see this one "cracked" in our day.