craic

What it means

1. 1.

   Enjoyment, atmosphere, good company — the quality of an occasion rather than any single thing in it. The craic was mighty.

2. 2.

   News or gossip, in the greeting 'what's the craic?', which means 'what's going on?' and expects 'not much' as an answer.

In use

• The pub was packed and the craic was ninety.

  Note: 'Craic was ninety' is a set phrase, from an old song title; ninety here just means very high.

• Sure we only went for the craic.

  Note: The commonest use of all — 'for the craic' means for no reason other than that it would be enjoyable.

Where it comes from

Not an ancient Irish word, despite the spelling. It comes from English and Scots 'crack' meaning loud talk, news or banter, long current in Ulster; Irish borrowed it as 'craic' in the mid-twentieth century, and the Gaelicised spelling was then re-borrowed into English from the 1970s on, helped by broadcasting and by pub signage. The version in which craic is a Gaelic survival is folk etymology.

First attested: 1970s in the craic spelling

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

crack