c.1300, possibly a variant of
picken (see
pick (v.)), or in part from M.L.G.
pekken "to peck with the beak."
Pecker "one who pecks" is from 1697; slang sense of "penis" is from 1902.
Peckerwood (1859) is U.S. Southern black dialectal inversion of
woodpecker (q.v.); in folklore, taken as the type of white folks (1929) and symbolically contrasted with
blackbird. As a behavior among hens,
pecking order (1928) translates Ger.
hackliste (T.J. Schjelderuo-Ebbe, 1922); transf. sense of "human hierarchy based on rank or status" is from 1955.
[pek] 
