Where Did the Term “Crackpot” For a Crazy Person Originate and What Does the Word Mean?

The word crackpot is often used to describe an irrational crazy person.

Crackpots have always been with us, but the term only came into use in the late 1800s.

The term plays on the obsolete use of the word pot to describe a skull.

It suggests that the person in question has a cracked skull, which is causing him or her to behave in a mad, foolish, or eccentric manner.

Crackpot should not be confused with crock pot.