Stringsinger {and others},

Although I added 'white bread' to my listing of slang words that had the same or similar meanings as square, that addition was supposed to be tongue & cheeky.

Actually, 'white bread' is more an adjectival term than a noun, or at least that's how I've seen it used. "Bland", "unadventurous", and "unexciting" are equivalent terms for "white bread". That phrase basically means a person who stays with the same oh same oh and doesn't attempt to do anything outside of the norm {white bread being the norm-which actually isn't true on a lot of different levels}.

As to race and squares, there are Black squares as well as White squares. And there are other color squares as well.

Some folks probably consider me a square, and I would agree sometimes.

All this to say, I want to retract "white bread" from the list of words that have the same colloquial meaning as the word "square".

Also, in my opinion, "ofay" and "peckerwood" don't really fit the list of slang referents that mean square either.

A square might be an ofay {or a peckerwood} but an ofay or a peckerwood doesn't have to be a square. He or she could be more "on top of things" than a person who is not an ofay or a perkerwood.

**

As to the origin of ofay, see this information from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ofays

"o·fay(f)
n. Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a white person.

[Possibly of West African origin.]
Word History: The commonly seen etymology of ofay, Pig Latin for foe is of less interest than the more likely story of this word's origins. The word, which is first recorded in the first quarter of the 20th century, must have been in use much longer if it is, as some scholars think, borrowed from an African source. Although this source has not been pinned down, the suggested possibilities are in themselves interesting. One would trace it to the Ibibio word afia, "white or light-colored." Another would have it come from Yoruba ofe, a word that was said in order to protect oneself from danger. The term was then transferred to white people, regarded as a danger to Black people throughout the wretched days of slavery and beyond"

-snip-

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peck provides this theory about the origin of the term "peckerwood" as a referent for poor White people:

"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."

-snip-

The woodpecker's red comb on the top of its head links this referent to "redneck", another African American derogatory term for White people, presumably because their necks got red while working in the outdoor sun.

**

My apologies if these terms offend anyone.