peckerwood

[pek-er-woo d]

noun

Midland and Southern U.S. woodpecker.

Southern U.S. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. poor white.

adjective

Southern U.S. small or insignificant: He makes a living farming and running a peckerwood sawmill.

Origin of peckerwood

1825–35, Americanism; pecker + wood¹; inversion of woodpecker

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for peckerwood

Historical Examples of peckerwood

Perhaps I didn't quite believe in the red-headed Peckerwood myself just then, and felt unable to incarnate him to Matthew.
The Golden Bird
Maria Thompson Daviess
Matthew lingered behind the others and helped me feed the old red ally and Mrs. Ewe and Peckerwood Pup.
The Golden Bird
Maria Thompson Daviess

Word Origin and History for peckerwood

1859, U.S. Southern black dialectal inversion of woodpecker; in folklore, taken as the type of white folks (1929) and symbolically contrasted with blackbird.