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Glite Dictionary
⚠️ An offensive term 🐦 A woodpecker
peckerwood

peckerwood

8 9.9
An offensive word for a poor white person from the country used in the southern United States
  • noun
  • /ˈpɛkərˌwʊd/
  • Slur
translation icon : paleto (despectivo)
  • What do you want, peckerwood? - Nothing.
  • peckerwood redneck
  • little peckerwood

Examples

  • You watch your mouth, peckerwood.

    Matewan (1987)

  • Lehan is a prime example of a liberal politician who believes that the bulk of her constituency are "rednecks and peckerwoods" and that their opinions count for nothing.

    Blog text (12)

  • - That way every peckerwood in this county would have a police record.

    The Klansman (1974)

  • "You can save it for later, like the little peckerwood here.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Man, I'm not talking about your peckerwood friends!

    American History X (1998)

  • Just another peckerwood caught picking his shorts up off the floor.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • What does anyone expect from a little peckerwood that's unfit to be president?

    Blog text (33)

  • Hangin' with these peckerwoods now, huh, pa?

    Blaze (2018)

  • The facts are that both JJs are peckerwoods.

    Blog text (17)

  • Those peckerwoods in the holler never seem to change their ways.

Surface Forms

peckerwood singular
peckerwoods plural

Morphology

peckerwood = pecker + wood (opaque) = pecker + wood

As a compound the base denotes the bird (pecker + wood → woodpecker/peckerwood); the morphological formation is analyzable as a compound.

Etymology

Peckerwood is also an offensive slang word for a poor or rural white person in parts of the southern United States. A helpful way to remember this is that people used the country bird name (from pecker 'one who pecks' + wood 'trees') as an insult about country life.