caulk (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
late 14c., "to stop up crevices or cracks," from Old North French cauquer, from Late Latin calicare "to stop up chinks with lime," from Latin calx (2) "lime, limestone" (see chalk). Original sense is nautical, of making ships watertight. Related: Caulked; caulking. As a noun, "caulking material," by 1980 (caulking in this sense was used from 1743). Related: Caulker.
crack (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"a split, an opening," mid-15c., earlier "a splitting sound; a fart; the sound of a trumpet" (late 14c.), probably from crack (v.). Meaning "rock cocaine" is first attested 1985. The superstition that it is bad luck to step on sidewalk cracks has been traced to c. 1890. Meaning "try, attempt" first attested 1830, nautical, probably a hunting metaphor, from slang sense of "fire a gun."
At their head, apart from the rest, was a black bull, who appeared to be their leader; he came roaring along, his tail straight an end, and at times tossing up the earth with his horns. I never felt such a desire to have a crack at any thing in all my life. He drew nigh the place where I was standing; I raised my beautiful Betsey to my shoulder, took deliberate aim, blazed away, and he roared, and suddenly stopped. ["A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Written by Himself," Philadelphia, 1834]
Adjectival meaning "top-notch, superior" (as in a crack shot) is slang from 1793, perhaps from earlier verbal sense of "do any thing with quickness or smartness" (Johnson). Grose (1796) has "THE CRACK, or ALL THE CRACK. The fashionable theme, the go." To fall through the cracks figuratively, "escape notice," is by 1975.
crazy (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1570s, "diseased, sickly," from craze + -y (2). Meaning "full of cracks or flaws" is from 1580s; that of "of unsound mind, or behaving as so" is from 1610s. Jazz slang sense "cool, exciting" attested by 1927. To drive (someone) crazy is attested by 1873. Phrase crazy like a fox recorded from 1935. Crazy Horse, Teton Lakhota (Siouan) war leader (d.1877) translates thašuka witko, literally "his horse is crazy."
hairline (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
also hair-line, "cord made of hair," 1731, from hair + line (n.). Meaning "a very fine line" is from 1846. As "the outline of the hair on top of the head," by 1903. As an adjective, of cracks, etc., 1904.
paper (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1590s, "to write down on paper," from paper (n.). Meaning "to decorate a room with paper hangings" is from 1774. Related: Papered; papering. Verbal phrase paper over in the figurative sense is from 1955, from the notion of hiding plaster cracks with wallaper.
prig (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"precisian in speech or manners," 1753, originally in reference to theological scruples (1704), of unknown origin; earlier appearances of the same word meaning "dandy, fop" (1670s), "thief" (c. 1600; in form prigger recorded from 1560s) could be related, as could thieves' cant prig "a tinker" (1560s).
A p[rig] is wise beyond his years in all the things that do not matter. A p. cracks nuts with a steam hammer: that is, calls in the first principles of morality to decide whether he may, or must, do something of as little importance as drinking a glass of beer. On the whole, one may, perhaps, say that all his different characteristics come from the combination, in varying proportions, of three things--the desire to do his duty, the belief that he knows better than other people, & blindness to the difference in value between different things. ["anonymous essay," quoted in Fowler, 1926]
Related: Priggery.
scapulimancy (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
divination by means of the cracks in a shoulder-blade put into a fire, 1871, from comb. form of scapula + -mancy.
rimoseyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
"Now especially of a fungus or lichen: cracked, fissured", Late 17th cent.; earliest use found in Elisha Coles. From classical Latin rīmōsus full of cracks, fissured from rīma cleft, crack, fissure + -ōsus.
rhagadesyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
"With plural concord. Linear fissures, crevices, or scars of the skin, especially around the anus or mouth", Old English; earliest use found in Pseudo-Apuleius' Herbarium. Partly from classical Latin rhagades fissures, cracks from ancient Greek ῥαγάδες, plural of ῥαγάς fissure (of soil), in Hellenistic Greek also crack or chap (of the skin) from ῥαγ-, aorist stem of ῥηγνύναι to break, burst + -άς; and partly from classical Latin rhagadia (also ragadia) (neuter plural; compare also post-classical Latin rhagadiae, ragadiae, feminine plural (636 in Isidore; 1250 in a British source)), in same sense from the plural of an unattested Greek form *ῥαγάδιον from ancient Greek ῥαγαδ-, ῥαγάς + -ιον, diminutive suffix.
septariumyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
"A concretionary nodule, typically of ironstone, having radial cracks filled with calcite or another mineral", Late 18th century: modern Latin, from Latin septum 'enclosure'.