Craky

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing someone who is mad or eccentric in an informal, old-fashioned way ; having a worn, creaking, or failing physical condition
2. Used colloquially of a person who acts wildly or foolishly ; of an object or body that is stiff, creaky, and in poor repair
3. Informally meaning out of one's mind or eccentric ; referring to something that creaks or is worn and unsteady from age

Etymology: In Scots and northern English dialect, "craky" describes something shaky, frail, or in poor order, and in some uses a person who is queer in the head. It is a regional adjective rather than standard English, so it appears mostly in dialect dictionaries and older literature from Scotland and the north of England rather than in general use. Its origin is uncertain. The most plausible connection is with the English "cracked," which has long meant both damaged and mentally unsound, and which shares the sense of something giving way under strain. Some dialect forms in the same family have been linked to an older Scots "craik," meaning a feeble or ailing creature, but the exact pathway from that word to this adjective is not firmly established, so the link to "crack" should be treated as a likely relation rather than a proven one.