Friday, October 3, 2014

Not all it is cracked up to be

Have you ever wondered where the phrase "not all it is cracked up to be" came from? 



One line of thought says the word "craic" or "crack" is from the Middle English word crak, which means "bragging talk." If we actually go to a Middle English dictionary, we come up with: 

Craken, v. to crack (like thunder), to cry out, to chatter, to break with a noise. Craken. 

Another thought says that the word is Irish Gaelic and though its definition is imprecise, the best notion is that it means fun. 

Either way, you know you are not getting what you bargained for, which is why Daniel Boone made the observation about Martin Van Buren that he was "not all he was cracked up to be."

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