featherwood

English

Etymology

Blend of feather +‎ peckerwood

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

featherwood (plural featherwoods)

1. (prison slang) A white female inmate, especially one who is racist or who is a member of a race-based prison gang.
   • 1998, Barbara A. Owen, "In the Mix": Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison, page 155:

     I have another roommate who is a white girl, she is a featherwood. So she got this thing in the mail from her pen pal that had peckerwood written in it. And this black girl wanted to look at her mail, which she had no business doing […]

   • 2007, Sandra Coleman, From Housewife and Mother to Convict, page 100:

     "I don't know, Teri asked me if I was a featherwood and I said no because I don't have wings […] " […] "Girl do you know what a featherwood is?" Tai asked. "I thought it was a bird." "God you're so innocent." Dolores stated.

   • 2010, Kenneth E. Hartman, Mother California: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars, page 68:

     I've been visiting a couple of featherwoods, all bad tattoos and twisted intentions. Seeing Anita for the first time without a half-inch-thick plate of shatterproof Plexiglas between us (the county jail allows only noncontact visits), […]

Quotations

• 1999, in Cold new world: growing up in a harder country:

  Angela would tear herself away from the TV and finish opening the can, declaring herself “a skin bitch, a Featherwood.” Someone at the window would shout, “Check out this Fender!” And the others would rush to the window […]

• 2007, Gang investigations: a street cop's guide (edited by Derrick Watkins, Richard Ashby), page 115:

  Any white man in prison is referred to as a "peckerwood," which is similar to "honky"; a white female would be a "featherwood." Be alert for "peckerwood" or " 100% wood" tattoos, and avoid classifying individuals as gang members based on these marks alone.

See also

• peckerwood, woodpile