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peckerwood

noun
/ˈpɛkɚwʊd/US/ˈpɛkəwʊd/UK

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.

Definitions

  1. A woodpecker.

    • When I was a boy, I rooted over an old dead sourwood to get some peckerwood eggs.
    • There was nothing but a peckerwood on an oak tree.

  2. A peckerwood sawmill.

    • The Langdale Company's new centralized sawmill and debarker in 1958 constituted a tremendous advance over the old peckerwood technology.

  3. 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.
    • Just as prejudiced as a Mississippi peckerwood when it comes to colored people.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. A white (male) inmate, especially one who is racist or who is a member of a race-based…

      A white (male) inmate, especially one who is racist or who is a member of a race-based prison gang.

The neighborhood

Derived

featherwood, wood, woodpile

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for peckerwood. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA