Craic

Etymology

Older than it looks. The Scots noun 'crack' meant lively conversation by the 1570s, well attested in Older Scots and Ulster speech. It travelled into Hiberno-English alongside Scots settlers in the seventeenth-century plantation. The Gaelic-flavoured spelling 'craic' is a twentieth-century respelling of an English word, not an inheritance from Old Irish - a fact that surprises people, including some who use it daily.

In a sentence

That's the best crack I've heard for a long time. - Ulster, 1929 (DSL)

Sez I sit doon ye boy ye, an let is share yer crack. - Belfast News Letter, 2002

Historical notes

The respelling 'craic' became dominant in Ireland from the 1960s onwards as part of a broader interest in Gaelic forms of English-language vocabulary. The original 'crack' is older and arguably more accurate to the etymology, but 'craic' carries the cultural register the modern speaker wants. Both spellings remain in use; older Northern Irish writing tends to keep 'crack', younger Republic-of-Ireland writing prefers 'craic'.

Alternate spellings

crack