Term for Scottish emigrant descendants?

[Phil]

I believe the term you are looking for is "Redneck" which originated in the Scottish borders referring to Presbyterians and another would be "Cracker" derived from the Scots word "craik" meaning talk referring to a loud talker or braggart. Craik, by the way, has been hijacked by the Irish but is, in fact, a Lowland Scots word.

[macwilkin]

I believe the term you are looking for is "Redneck" which originated in the Scottish borders referring to Presbyterians and another would be "Cracker" derived from the Scots word "craik" meaning talk referring to a loud talker or braggart. Craik, by the way, has been hijacked by the Irish but is, in fact, a Lowland Scots word.

Again, though, "redneck" would not apply to a RC or Episcopalian Highlander.

BTW, David Fischer in Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America documents the first use of the word "redneck" to North Carolina in 1830, when an English traveller described the local folk of Ulster-Scots Presbyterian heritage as "Rednecks".

Todd

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I believe the term would be "Cracker" derived from the Scots word "craik" meaning talk referring to a loud talker or braggart. Craik, by the way, has been hijacked by the Irish but is, in fact, a Lowland Scots word.

Actually the term "cracker", as applied to a boaster or barggart, is first noted in the English language in c. 1509-- the first (early 18th century) reference to the word "cracker" in Scots that I have thus far encountered referred to a pistol. "Craic", in Irish, does not mean "to talk" (that word is "caint"), but rather refers to a gathering or group of people-- "The 'craic' at the pub is brilliant."

"Cracker", in the North American sense, probably refers to "corn crackers" (those who shuck corn) and/or "whip crackers" (drovers herding cattle) and is a contemptuous term (like hillbilly) used to describe "poor white trash", as well as the native whites of Georgia and Florida. Its first recorded use in North America seems to be c. 1784 as reported in the London Chronicle when describing "banditti" in the former Maryland Colony.

[slohairt]

MoR is correct. Craic haes nae tae dae wi Craik!

[Phil]

Actually the term "cracker", as applied to a boaster or barggart, is first noted in the English language in c. 1509-- the first (early 18th century) reference to the word "cracker" in Scots that I have thus far encountered referred to a pistol. "Craic", in Irish, does not mean "to talk" (that word is "caint"), but rather refers to a gathering or group of people-- "The 'craic' at the pub is brilliant."

"Cracker", in the North American sense, probably refers to "corn crackers" (those who shuck corn) and/or "whip crackers" (drovers herding cattle) and is a contemptuous term (like hillbilly) used to describe "poor white trash", as well as the native whites of Georgia and Florida. Its first recorded use in North America seems to be c. 1784 as reported in the London Chronicle when describing "banditti" in the former Maryland Colony.

Cracker - http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/index.html - is a lowland Scots word. 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.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

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.

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.

[Phil]

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. 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.

I'm not sure that it is really worth a long etymological discussion and you must remember that both the Scots language and English share a common ancestry in the Anglo-Saxon dialects. Prior to the Norman conquest of England, Gaelic was the common language of Scotland and it was only after Norman influence spread to Scotland in the 12th century that the then northern English dialect spread northwards into Scotland and Gaelic began its long decline, retreating northwards and westwards. This Scottish version of English was then modified by adopting French words of the Norman aristocracy and also Scandinavian words and speech habits from the Viking settlers. Not to labour a point, however, it is unsurprising that both languages contain similar words given their common ancestry but to argue who had them first is unproductive. Nowadays, in modern English to describe someone or something as a "cracker" is to describe it as at the pinnacle of beauty or achievement. To "crack on" is to speed up a "crack" is a thin split in material (I will gloss over its reference to any physiological feature) and a "cracker" can also be a table decoration at Christmas containing a novelty and a joke which is pulled by 2 people producing an explosive "crack". It can also mean a thin biscuit for cheese. In Scots it carries an entirely different meaning i.e. a boaster, talker or gossip and derives from the Scots word "crack" meaning boast, talk or gossip. "Cracker" can also mean in Scots the lash of a whip and may, indeed, be its derivation in the US where many Scots drovers worked as cowboys. I do not imagine that any English settlers would have described the Scottish interlopers to their colony in the glowingly complimentary terms that their interpretation of "cracker" implies and still assert that the description originated amongst the early Scots settlers although who it was describing I do not know. Perhaps the early Ulster-Scots from their loud speech and frontier ways.
I failed to make the point about my earlier post but it was to give a timeline of settlement into the US colonies, English followed by illegal Lowland Scots encoursged by the Glasgow tobacco "barons" into the southern states then more Lowland Scots legally after the union of the Crowns in 1707 followed later by Ulster Scots and even later again by the Highlanders. It is most likely that epithets of this nature would have been applied by existing settlers towards newcomers, something that continues to this day (e.g. "whingeing Poms" an Australian term for British immigrants).

[macdoc451]

American-Scot Technically, that would be the true way to describe your ancestry. Of course, it would imply that a) your American by nationality, and b) your Scottish by lineage......... The other way around (as many etnic groups put it) would imply that you claim alliegance to that country first and formost...........