peckerwood

n. woodpecker, type of bird with a hard bill for boring into trees; (Offensive Slang used in the USA) rural white person from the South who has a lower than average income

Peckerwood (or simply Wood) is a pejorative slang term coined in the 19th century by southern Black Americans to describe poor whites. Blacks saw blackbirds as a symbol of themselves, and the woodpecker as a representation of working class whites. They considered them loud and troublesome like the bird, often with red hair similar to the bird's red plumes. This word is still widely used by southern blacks to refer to southern whites.
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Noun
1. bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects
(synonym) woodpecker, pecker
(hypernym) piciform bird
(hyponym) green woodpecker, Picus viridis
(member-holonym) Picidae, family Picidae

A southern term for poor anglo-saxon protestants