noun
General Slang
peckerwood
· noun · prison
Prison slur-turned-badge for a white inmate.
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Definitions
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Inside, a white inmate — particularly one tied to the white-power prison subculture. Originally a Southern Black slur for poor rural whites (pecker + wood, an inversion of woodpecker), it got flipped and worn as a badge by white prison gangs from the 1940s onward. Shortened to 'wood' in everyday yard talk.
“He fell into the peckerwood car his first week and never came back from it.”
by community
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peckerwood In A Sentence
He fell into the peckerwood car his first week and never came back from it.
Origin & Usage
19th-century Southern Black English inversion of 'woodpecker', used as a slur for poor rural whites. Reclaimed by white prison gangs in mid-20th-century California as a self-identifier.
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