[Ads-l] peckerwood

[Charles C Doyle]

In American Speech 61 (1986) 326 David Gold noted, "Webster's III defines yokel as 'an unpolished, naive, or gullible inhabitant of a rural area or of a small town' and says that the word is 'perhaps from English dialectal yokel 'green woodpecker.'"

In an appended editorial note I observed the parallel with the (Southern) American dialect peckerwood for both a rustic and a woodpecker.

--Charlie

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