[Ads-l] Antedating of "Peckerwood" (Derogatory Term for White Person)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

In the past, Jonathan Lighter has posted many valuable citations for
"peckerwood". JL listed different senses including:

(1) scoundrel; rascal; contemptible person
(2) poor rustic
(3) white person
(4) nickname

The term is sometimes ambiguous, I think. Here are links two posts from JL:

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2025-June/167245.html
https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-May/159808.html

On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 2:35 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >   1901 Plaindealer (Topeka) 8 Mar. 2 (GenealogyBank)
> >
> >   The peckerwood, resubmission candidate and cigarette fiend on the so-called Law and Order Ticket, which
> >   ought to be called the Lying, Disorder and Hypocrisy Ticket, seems to think that Chiles and Townsend ought
> >   to leave town until he is elected. ... The colored people will not support men who denounce their race at every opportunity.
>
> Fred - do you not see "peckerwood" as an adjective modifying "candidate", rather than a noun?
>
> 1899 Galveston Daily News 1 Sept 8/3 [Texas Digital Newspaper Program]
>
> Henry Frost was there also, and said: "Yandall, give me your gun, I want to kill the old peckerwood," meaning Mr. Blakely.
>
> The above cite should perhaps be bracketed, as the context makes clear that Blakely was a member of one of two political factions in town - "woodpecker party" and the "jaybird" party.  So it is possible that "peckerwood" simply means "woodpecker" in this context.
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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