FWD: "Cohen" Crack Corn

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>It's most likely "gimcrack corn," where "gimcrack" (as an adjective) means
>"tastelessly showy, cheap, gawdy." As a noun it means "a showy but useless
>object, a gewgaw." "Corn" (as in "barleycorn") is short for "corn whiskey."
>     So the slave is saying that he might have only a cheap liquor with which
>to drown his sorrows, but "I don't care."  The loss of his master has saddened
>him so much, that the quality of the whiskey is a very secondary matter.

Well, no shortage of speculations!

I am unable to immediately demonstrate that the song or its chorus was or
was not new ca. 1846. I can't find any trace of "Jim [etc.] crack corn" in
the usual sources before 1846.

With respect to the possibility of "give me" > "jimmy"/"jim", is there any
evidence of such a pronunciation shift (with /dZ/ replacing /g/) for this
word or other analogous words? I suppose it happened in "margarine", but
still ....

Is there any known instance of "gimcrack" applied to whiskey or any
analogous substance? I made a quick search but found nothing.

"Corn cracking" referred to grinding corn, and an operation by this name
would have been expected in the preparation of either animal feed or corn
liquor, I believe, but also in making cornmeal for human consumption. I
suppose maybe "corncracker" originally applied to people whose staple food
was cornmeal or cornbread (as opposed to wheat bread etc.): perhaps in
certain areas, then, to poor folks or subsistence farmers. HDAS shows
"corncracker" = "poor white native of [various states]"/"hillbilly"/"redneck".

"Crack corn" is also slang for "sleep" (in DARE) but I don't know how old
this is.

-- Doug Wilson