Spears/peckers/poodles

[Wilson Gray]

It's relevant, if someone doubts that "pecker" is a slang term for
"penis." However, I don't doubt that. I first heard it used in the
wild with this meaning ca.1955 and I didn't get the impression that
this usage had originated with my interlocutor, Dave "The Old
Irishman" Beach, even though he was around 65, at the time.

I heard my parents and grandparents use "peckerwood" as slang meaning
"white man" as soon as I was old enough to process language used
metaphorically.

If you want that ass-kissing, you have to show that BE uses "pecker"
to mean "penis" and that this use influenced the shift of "peckerwood"
from its literal meaning to its slang meaning.

FWIW it's worth, there's a street named "Spooksteeg" in Amsterdam.
Even though I knew that "spook" in Dutch sounds like "spoke" in
English, it still gave me a chuckle to see it, "spook" used in-group
being no more offensive than "boot, shoe, shooby, shooby-doo, scobe,
scoby-do, shade, colored, darkness, night, shadow, splib," etc., etc.
Indeed, a  grade-school classmate of mine, Fletcher Smith," bore the
nickname, "Luke the Spook."

In Germany in those days, Germans used "bimbo" m. and "bimbolina" f.
as neutral slang terms. They used "Mobutu" as an insult. Of course, no
GI's had a neutral slang term for Germans, whites using "krauts" and
blacks using "comrade." I'm fairly certain that the Germans didn't
realize that this latter was being used as an insult, but it
definitely was meant as such. But "fraw" and "frawline" were neutral
terms for German women among black GI's.

I''ve seen Back To The Future many times, somehow missing that
particular scene each time, probably because I've personally
experienced only "niggger" used as an insult in the wild. However, I
accept your statement that the scene occurs as described.

-Wilson

On 1/14/07, William Salmon <william.salmon at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       William Salmon <william.salmon at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Spears/peckers/poodles
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In _Slang and Euphemism_, Spears defines "peckerwood" as "a
> derogatory(!) nickname for a Caucasian. From the common name of a
> species of woodpecker. The term may be an elaboration of 'pecker'
> (sense 2) [= 'penis' -WG]. [from Southern black dialect ...]."
>
> "Peckerwood" is the term used for any woodpecker, just as
> "hoppergrass" is used for any  grasshopper, all over the South, and,
> in East Texas, at least, "toadfrog" is used for any toad. In order to
> claim that peckerwood is an elaboration of "pecker" in the sense of
> penis, a researcher would first have to show that "pecker" is used in
> BE as a slang term for "penis" and that it is also applied to a person
> as an insult. If there's anyone who can show that even one of these is
> true, I'll kiss his ass at high noon on the courthouse lawn and give
> him 45 minutes to draw a crowd.
> [WS]
>
> There is also an old saying, used to describe someone with red hair: "red on
> the noodle like a pecker on a poodle" in which "pecker" seems to have the
> relevant penis meaning.
>
> As far as derogatory nicknames for Caucasians, a scene from the movie "Back
> to the Future" has a young white punk calling an African-American guy a
> spook, and then the African-American guy responds by calling the white guy a
> peckerwood.  Here's the scene (2nd and 3rd pics):
> http://fusion-industries1.tripod.com/scene15therealgeorge/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org