Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US black) a derog. term for the poor white population of the Southern states; thus extended to non-US contexts; occas. sing. (see cit. 1885).

1822		Bangor Register 1 Aug. 1/4: (19th Century U.S. Newspapers) Georgetown, D C May 4. Nancy Swann, a lady of color whose mighty powers of witchcraft have made ‘de black niggers, and de poor white trash’ tremble, was indicted for practising in and upon one Peter Belt.
1833		F. Kemble 6 Jan. in Clinton Fanny Kemble’s Journals (2000) 62: The slaves themselves entertain the very highest contempt for white servants, whom they designate as ‘poor white trash.’.
1855		‘Q.K. Philander Doesticks’ Doesticks Letters 314: The appointments generally at this place might not be considered very tasteful by the white trash.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 157: She was a bitter woman when vexed, and called me ‘beggar buckra,’ ‘poor white trash,’ ‘tam lily thief,’ and the like.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 45: He [i.e. a very poor person] appears as Conch or Low Downer in North Carolina, and as Sandhiller or Poor White Trash in South Carolina and Georgia.
1873		Spirit of Age (Woodstock, VT) 15 May 1/4: Do yer s’pose I’se gwine to hab yer morals reptured by de white trash! [...] if I eber cotch yer munnicatin’ wid de white trash any mo’ [...] I’ll brack yer head.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 17/4: In law, a ‘white trash’ has about as much chance of getting justice in Hayti as a nigger has in the South Seas, as was well exemplified in the case of two blacking-bottle brudders who were […] charged with murdering a Frenchman, their benefactor.
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 107: Two wretched little ragamuffins – one, of the poor white trash, and another a negro.
1891		M.D. Landon Eli Perkins: Thirty Years of Wit 265: I jess know she ent ’soshiatin’ wid no sich wite trash like you is!
1894		G.A. Sala London up to Date 61: [in UK] In this equally select and sumptuous place of resort for the aristocratic, the cultured, and the wealthy [...] the sky would rain black balls if such ‘poor white trash’ dared to come up for ballot.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 209: Ida, the white trash whose vocation was to wait on the narangies.
1908		R.S. Baker Following the Colour Line 195: The descendants of the ‘poor white trash,’ who never owned slaves, have always hated the Negroes.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 166: Oh! You poor white trash – you –.
1928		N.I. White Amer. Negro Folk-Songs 385: [reported from Auburn, Ala., 1915–1916] Oh little nigger baby, / Black face and shiny eyes, / Better than the po’ white trash / In the sweet bye and bye.
1929		C. McKay Banjo 160: What do them poah ofay trash in the Ditch know about doing the stuff in the big-style way it’s done back home?
1935		L. Hughes Mulatto in Three Negro Plays (1969) II i: And he’s runnin’ – runnin’ from po’ white trash which ain’t worth de little finger o’ nobody what’s got your blood in ’em, Tom.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 207: Good old Buck [...] dared challenge the supremacy of the white race by passing a couple of white trash in a dinky old rattletrap Ford.
1950		G.B. Wallace ‘Sarvent Union’ in Bennett et al. Anancy Stories and Dialect Verse 95: But de ’oman dat employ mi / Is-a out-an’-out wite trash.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 82: She’s trash, stupid, like all the rest of her family.
1953		W. Fisher Waiters 16: Poor white hungry trash. Nothin’ but a whole lot of work an’ no money.
1956		J. Osborne Look Back in Anger Act II: What are you, you Welsh trash?
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 117: And I! don! know! what! Iamdoing! here! amongst all this: tuh-rash!
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 162: Algren’s book opens with one of the best historical descriptions of American white trash ever written.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 34: No Niggers or poor white trash.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 47: Green was a slow-speaking con from Oklahoma, and usually hung around with hillbilly trash.
1977		Sun. Times Rev. 21 Aug. 29: A Southern white boy who [...] represented everything their parents despised in ‘white trash.’.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 278: Only a boor, white trash or worse, would ever question the man’s techniques.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 152: Just a bunch of lowlife bikers and white trash.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 97: [in UK] A commitment to the sadness of being white trash.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 285: I said he’s white, not white trash.
2008		G. Pelecanos Way Home (2009) 256: Trash [...] Two white guys, oldee than us. Seems to me they’ve been in the [prison] system.
2011		Observer 9 Jan. 15/2: Images of young, female, white trash.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 264: [His] picture should probably be next to white trash in the dictionary.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 11: Selling to redneck bayou trash.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 267: There’s no shitkickers/no white trash.