crunchie

English

Etymology

From crunchy. Use to refer to infantrymen in Vietnam is from their "crunching" through the jungle brush. Use to refer to white Afrikaners is perhaps from their supposed tendency to eat crunchy food.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹʌnt͡ʃi/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

crunchie (plural crunchies)

1. A somewhat granola- or cookie-like chocolate-covered sweet, served in bar form.
   • 1935, Enid Bagnold, National Velvet, page 18:

     “Crunchie?” said Velvet, her face lighting. “I got them this morning.” “On tick still?” “Yes. She was cross but I swore we'd pay by Saturday.” In the gold paper was a chocolate stick. Beneath the chocolate was a sort of honeycomb, crisp and friable, something between biscuit and burnt sugar. Fry's chocolate crunchie.

   • 2000, Lynn Bedford Hall, The Best of Cooking in South Africa, page 207:

     A different method and a different flavour from the usual brown crunchie. The recipe is easily doubled for a larger batch.

2. (US Vietnam era military slang, usually in the plural) An infantry soldier, a grunt.
   • 2016, Micheal Clodfelter, Mad Minutes and Vietnam Months: A Soldier’s Memoir, →ISBN:

     To the subjective mind of the combat crunchie and cannon cocker, executing with his legs, sweat, and often his life, the grand designs […]

3. (South Africa, slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A white Afrikaner.
   • 1990, Rian Malan, My Traitor's Heart: Blood and Bad Dreams, page 54:

     […] the tyranny of the rockspiders, crunchies, hairybacks, ropes, and bloody Dutchmen. Those were the names by which we referred to Afrikaners.

See also

• crunchies (“dry cat food in the form of small pellets”)
• crunchy (“hippie”)