Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Cracker - http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/index.html - is a lowland Scots word.
Indeed it is, but looking at the dates on the DOST it appears to have entered the Scots language some fair time after it first appeared in English.
Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Scottish merchants operated illegally in the then English colony and Scottish settlers started arriving as early as the 1680's to the Southern and Atlantic states where the majority of teachers and doctors were trained in Scotland. Ulster Scots didn't start arriving in the second wave of immigration until some time later, around 1717 following famine in Ulster and the Highland Scots arrived later again, after the failed '45 rebellion and their persecution following it.
That's as may be, but it doesn't add anything to the contention that "cracker", as used in North America, is a transplanted Scots word. I'll grant that words travel, and meanings can shift, but in this instance I don't think that happened, at least not so far as a Scots root is concerned.