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Peckerwood
Definitions
- 1 A woodpecker. Appalachia, Southern-US, slang
"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."
- 2 bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects wordnet
- 3 A peckerwood sawmill. Appalachia, Southern-US
"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."
- 4 A white person, especially a Southerner, or one who is ignorant, rustic, or bigoted. US, ethnic, offensive, slang, slur
"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."
- 5 A white (male) inmate, especially one who is racist or who is a member of a race-based prison gang. slang
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.
See also for "peckerwood"
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