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Ethnic slur for white people

Peckerwood is a term for a woodpecker which is used in the Southern United States; it is also used as a racial epithet for white people, especially poor rural whites.^[2] Originally an ethnic slur, the term has been embraced by a subculture related to prison gangs and outlaw motorcycle clubs.^[3][4][5][6] The term was in use as an inversion of woodpecker by the 1830s, with the sense referring to white people documented from the 1850s.^[2] African-American folklore in the 1920s contrasted the white "peckerwood" bird with the African-American blackbird.^[6][7] The word became a common term in Jive.

History

Use of the term, an inversion of woodpecker, dates to the early 19th century. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the earliest printed use to an Alabama newspaper in 1835.^[2]Peckerwood was in use in reference to white people by 1859; it of