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The term was derived from "Picker Head" which was a protrusion off of a drum in old farm machinery which caught the material to be picked, be it an ear of corn, a sunflower head, a cucumber etc., and separated it from it's stalk or vine.

Because the termination box on an electric motor looked very similar, it was called (probably) "that there picker head thang on the 'lectric motor"!

Interestingly enough, in the South the term "Peckerhead" already meant a dullard and was also apparently derived from "Picker Head", but meaning someone too dumb to do anything on the farm but be a picker. With a Southern twang, "picker" can easily end up sounding like "pecker".

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13y ago

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