“Croaker” Is Slang for a Hundred-Dollar Bill

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Gina calling from Dallas, Texas.

Hello, Gina.

Hi, Gina. How are you doing?

I’m great. How are you guys?

Awesome.

What’s going on?

I was wondering where the term croaker for $100 bill originated.

Croaker?

Croaker.

How are you spelling that?

C-R-O-A-K-E-R.

Well, now tell us how you heard that or where you heard it.

Yeah, how do you use that in a sentence?

What’s it sound like when it comes out of your mouth?

Can I have a croaker?

Are you originally from Dallas?

No, my family is actually from New Orleans.

And this is a family word then, right?

Yes, it is.

And you don’t hear it in Dallas from anybody who’s not from Louisiana, right?

No, I actually say that to friends and they kind of look at me like I’m crazy.

There is only the tiniest bit of information about the word croaker out there.

But what is incredibly interesting, it is this so hyper-focused that we know that it comes mostly from people who have lived or been familiar with Louisiana.

Every use of the word croaker to mean a $100 bill or a big bill, you know, a lot of money, they all come from Louisiana.

And I can find maybe a dozen, 15 uses of it online.

None of the dictionaries I can check have it.

But there’s like this little scant evidence out there.

C-R-O-A-K-E-R, right?

That’s how you would spell it?

Yes, sir.

And so you might find people online saying something like, I would bet a croaker that my car is faster than yours.

A croaker?

A croaker, yeah.

Or it’d be worth a croaker to me if you’d come by and help paint the house.

Right?

Meaning that I would pay you a croaker.

I’d pay you $100 if you’d come by and paint the house.

And Gina, that’s how you use it, huh?

Yeah, yes.

It’s very slangy, right?

It’s not a formal word at all?

No, it’s not formal.

In fact, my mom won a bet on the Derby, and my uncle gave her a $100 bill and said, here’s your croaker.

And they’re both from Louisiana as well.

Yes.

There’s one theory that I have.

There’s two theories that I have.

One of them is good and the other one is bad.

I’ll tell you the good one first.

Oh, let us guess.

Well, there’s a French verb, C-R-O-Q-U-E-R, which in one of its meanings means to be crisp.

Sure, like croque monsieur.

Yes.

So a thing that is crisp might be, in an Americanized version of the word, a crisp $100 bill might be a croaker.

Nice.

Right?

Is that the good theory or the bad theory?

That’s the good theory.

Okay.

The bad theory is that there’s a kind of sack that’s often called a croaker sack or a croaker bag.

It’s kind of a burlap sack or a gunny sack.

And it comes from an older word, crocus, because those bags were used to transport the crocus flowers around the world from all these different places.

But in the south, in the Gulf states of Florida and Georgia, and not really as far as Louisiana, but a little bit, this term is widely used for a gunny sack or a canvas sack.

And my theory, which I’ve invented out of whole cloth, so to speak, is that a croaker holds about 100 pounds worth of stuff.

A croaker sack is about 100 pounds.

But that’s bogus.

That’s heavy.

Yeah, that’s heavy.

I suspect it’s from the French forge.

I like that.

Awesome.

Crisp $100 bill.

Well, thanks for answering that question.

Yeah, sure, no problem.

Drop us a line another time, all right?

You want the address for where to send your croaker?

She’s not answering.

Okay, Gina, we’ll talk with you later.

Bye, Gina.

Thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

What do they say around your way?

You know, what’s the language that they use down the store when you go out there and buy your groceries?

Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or drop us a line and tell us about the curious things your neighbors pronounce.

Words@waywordradio.org.