Dictionary

peckerwood en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈpɛkəwʊd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈpɛkɚwʊd/ (General-American)

Etymology

Inversion of woodpecker. Application to white people is due to the perception that the woodpecker is a symbol of whites, whereas the crow or blackbird is a symbol of blacks.

Meanings

1. (Appalachia, Southern-US, slang) A woodpecker.
   • When I was a boy, I rooted over an old dead sourwood to get some peckerwood eggs. 1953, Jesse Stuart, The Good Spirit of Laurel Ridge, New York: McGraw-Hill, →LCCN, →OL:
   • On the morning of the next, one of Mr. White's daughters came into the house to inform me that there was a "peckerwood" in a tree in the yard. I immediately took my gun and went out to investigate thinking that perhaps it was a Pileolated Woodpecker, a bird I wanted to obtain. 1900 January 15, T. P. Drowne, “A Trip to Fauquier Co., Virginia; With Notes on the Specimens Obtained.”, in Walter F. Webb, editor, The Museum: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science, volume 6, number 3, Albion, page 38:
   • There was nothing but a peckerwood on an oak tree. 1992, Robert Morgan, The Mountains Won't Remember Us: And Other Stories, New York: Scribner, published 2000, →ISBN, →OL, page 40:
2. (Appalachia, Southern-US) A peckerwood sawmill.
   • The Langdale Company's new centralized sawmill and debarker in 1958 constituted a tremendous advance over the old peckerwood technology. 2002, John E. Lancaster, Judge Harley and His Boys: The Langdale Story, 1st edition, Macon: Mercer University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 222:
   • Throughout this territory are mills of every variety and size, from the small "peckerwood" tractor mill capable of cutting only a few thousand feet of lumber per day to the world's largest pine lumber mill with a capacity of more than one million feet per day. 1933 January 7, Traffic Service Corporation, “Serving an essential Industry: Lumber”, in The Traffic World, volume 51, number 1, page 8:
3. (US, ethnic, offensive, slang, slur) A white person, especially a Southerner, or one who is ignorant, rustic, or bigoted.
   • All the time I was stretched out on the infirmary cot I kept looking at the blank walls and seeing the mean, murdering faces of those Southern peckerwoods when they went after Big Six and the others with their knives. 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Don’t Cry, Ma”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 16:
   • Just as prejudiced as a Mississippi peckerwood when it comes to colored people. 1967, John Oliver Killens, 'Sippi, New York: Trident Press, →LCCN, →OL, page 50:
4. (slang) A white (male) inmate, especially one who is racist or who is a member of a race-based prison gang.

Forms

Deriveds

woodpile · wood · featherwood

Relateds

peckerhead

Synonyms

white person (white person) · redneck (rustic)