Yankee

A friend asked me about the word Yankee earlier -- and, in fact, gave me the generally accepted origin (hat tip to Robin). The OED says that the most plausible conjecture is that Yankee (nowadays often used to refer to any American, but originally used to refer to an American from New England or one of the northern states), is a derivative of the Dutch forename Jan, and was originally intended as a derogatory nickname.

 

There have been other suggestions as to its provenance. Thomas Anburey, a British officer in the War of Independence, said Yankee comes from the Cherokee eankke, slave or coward, which, he says, was a name given to the inhabitants of New England by the Virginians, because they did not assist the Virginians in a war with the Cherokees. Historian William Gordon said that farmer Jonathan Hastings of Cambridge, Mass., used it in the sense of ‘excellent’. Another possible explanation is that the word has developed from Native American Indian corruptions of the word 'English' (which became first 'Yengees', then 'Yankees'.

Comments

[Julie]

I do not believe that any Americans outside New England think of themselves as Yankees, and I think it might be dangerous to refer to a Southerner by that term.

[John]

From one, thank you for this post.

While those of us in New England typically think of inhabitants of this 6-state region as Yankees, Southerners today very frequently refer to all Northerners as "Yankees", especially in casual, friendly settings. This is a throwback to our Civil War era.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that here in the Greater Boston area, I sense that we tend to use the expression less in self-reference, most likely because of its baseball connotation, the NY Yankees being arch rivals of the Boston Red Sox.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thank you, Julie and John, for your comments. You both confirm that the word Yankees refers to northerners. I'm pretty sure that the OED definition I mentioned (any American) was referring to British English usage. We Brits are probably guilty of lumping all Americans together, just as Welsh and Irish people, and Scots get annoyed when people outside the UK refer to them as 'English'.

[John]

I think most Americans, north or south, are not annoyed or offended by references to "the Yanks" or "you Yanks", in a broad collective sense. If one called an individual southerner a Yank, he/she might be offended.

Are British people from the various countries within the UK offended if we refer to all, or a group - collectively - as "Brits"?

On a side note, you'll find both "Yanks" and "Brits" in very common favourable usage in our respective militaries.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, John. I don't think UK citizens are offended by the term 'Brits'. Nationalists in Northern Ireland might be, I suppose.

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