Crack
,as a crack man, a first-rate fellow; a crack hand at cards, a first-rate player; a crack article, an excellent one, i.e. an article cracked up or boasted about. This is the Latin crepo, to crack or boast about. Hence Lucretius ii. 1168, “crepas antiquum genus.”
A gude crack. A good talker.
“To be a gude crack … was essential to the trade of a ‘puir bodyʹ of the more esteemed class.”—Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary (Introduction).
In a crack. Instantly. In a snap of the fingers, crepʹitu digitoʹrum (in a crack of the fingers). (French, craquer.)
“Une allusion an bruit de lʹongle contre la doul que les Orientaux du moyen age touchaient du doight quand ils voulaient affirmer solennellement une chose.” Hence—
“Sire, bien vous croi seur les Dieux;
Mais assés vous querroie mieux
Se vous lʹongle hurties au dent.”
