what or where does the word yank or yankee come from?

Question

americans are referred to as yanks or yankees by the british. ALSO, northerners (especially new englanders and new yorkers) are called yanks or yankees by people from the southern united states. i looked it up on dictionary.com but it only gave me what i already know. where does this term come from?

thank you all. i think im going to a yankees game now!

Answer 1

Yankee
Origin: 1765

From the beginning, Yankee has been a fighting word. We first come across it in the names of pirates: one Captain Yankey, also known as Yankey Duch (presumably meaning "Dutch"), mentioned in 1683 and 1684, and a Captain John Williams, known as Yankey or Yanky, in 1687 and 1688.

By 1765, it had been applied specifically to inhabitants of New England, and not as a compliment. A poem published that year called Oppression, a Poem by an American, has as its hero "a Portsmouth Yankey," with the note, "our hero being a New-Englander by birth, has a right to the epithet of Yankey; name of derision, I have been informed, given by the Southern people on the Continent, to those of New-England."

The British liked Yankee, too, when they wanted a derisive epithet for the New England provincials. They set it to music in the song "Yankee Doodle," said to have been composed by a British army surgeon "in derision of the provincial troops."

Then came the American Revolution, and the word as well as the world turned upside down. What had been an insult became a boast. Yankees used that name proudly for themselves as they fought the British, and "Yankee Doodle" became the marching song of the revolution.

But if Yankee was now a term of endearment, how could southerners express their derision toward the people of the North? Simple enough. Add a prefix, and you have fighting words once again: damned Yankee or plain damyankee. They appear as early as 1812, in this threat: "Take the middle of the road or I'll hew you down, you d'--d Yankee rascal."

Even in the twentieth century, when Yankees has often just seemed to signify the name of a baseball team, southerners still call northerners Yankees when they are annoyed with them. And during the World Wars, when we told our allies "the Yanks are coming," we meant fighting men.


of course thre are many different meanigs and writings on this. Go to this url and you can read quite a few:

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=itj28h13r739?tname=yankee&method=6&sbid=lc02a

Answer 2

When the English landed in Massachusetts the Indians said they were Penobscots or whatever and who are you. English was the answer. This was hard for the Indians to say so it came out something like Yengkish. This was used by the newcomers but soon corrupted into Yankee. The meaning kept enlarging. It came to mean New Englander. Then alternatively a New Englander of English descent. In our Civil War it was used for all northerners, with Damyankee a Southern version. By World War I it became any American. By World War II, Yanks sometimes substituted, but more often than not by the British. New Yorkers are not Yankees in the stricter sense, but a baseball team there sited uses that name. Thus the word can be used many ways, with the speaker and recipient probably understanding what usage was intended. A New England Yankee would often use it to refer to those from New England while somebody from elsewhere might mean New Englander or American, or some other specific intent.

Answer 3

Yankee: a community or citizen of the USA or, greater narrowly, of the hot England states of the USA (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). The term Yankee is frequently linked with such features as shrewdness, thrift, ingenuity, and conservatism. It grew to become into utilized to Federal squaddies and different Northerners via Southerners during the yank Civil conflict (6a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48866a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48–66a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48) and in a while. The beginning place of the term is unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary says that “consistent with danger the main achievable conjecture” is that it comes from the Dutch Janke, the diminutive of Jan (John). British squaddies are recorded using it as a term of derision in 6a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48776a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48. Mitford Mathews (A Dictionary of Americanism on historic concepts [6a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b486a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b486a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b486a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48]) traced its upward thrust, retaining that no data of use of the observe via New Englanders in the previous the conflict of Lexington (6a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48776a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48) has been discovered. Many fanciful derivations have been stepped forward. A legendary tribe of Massachusetts Indians, the Yankos (“Invincibles”), have been mentioned to have been defeated via brave New Englanders who then by some skill assumed their call. Virginians countered with the story that the observe skill coward or slave and springs from the Cherokee observe eankke; no such observe exists interior the Cherokee language. those and various different theories concerning to the beginning place of yank and of yank Doodle are reviewed and are all rejected in a finished learn carried out for the Librarian of Congress via Oscar G. Sonneck (6a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48873–6a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b486a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b4828): checklist on “The enormous call-Spangled Banner,” “Hail Columbia,” “united statesa.,” “Yankee Doodle” (6a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b486a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b4806a508a60aa3bf951ea6acb021c94b48).

Answer 4

Try the Oxford English Dictionary. Better than Websters', it gives the etymology of the word which is what you're really looking for. I'll hazard a conjecture I heard. Before the British ousted the Dutch from New York, ' Ian ' or ' Jan ' pronounced ' Yan ' was a fairly common name. But where they stretch it to ' Yankee ' beats me. Then again ... does a cracker govo plant have to make sense?

Answer 5

From the song Yankee doodle dandy.

It was sung by British troops to insult the Americans, until they lost the war of independence. After the war the Americans from the south adopted the song as a victory song and kept the name.

Answer 6

In one of the history classes that I took, and now I don't remember which one, as I would like to give it credit, but here goes. The Native Americans at the time had a difficult time pronouncing "English" when referring to the new white people that were suddenly showing up in ships. The closest they could get was to say "Yen-geez" and soon it sounded very much like "Yankees." That is one version, and it at least sounds probable, or possible.

Answer 7

early dutch settlers in ny had a figure they called "jan kees",or "john cheese".he was like "uncle sam" or "john bull' or "marianne"-who were the "avatars" for britain,us and france,.british usage of "yankee" or "yank",is in fact,offensive to many born south of the mason/dixon line.in fact,a yankee is a person born from the hudson valley in new york on up thru the new england states.(which originally were dutch).

Answer 8

It's Dutch and comes from Jan Kees (two forenames commonly in use in Holland) or Jan Kaas (= John Cheese). Back then a common slang term to refer to a Dutchman.

Answer 9

it originated in the 1760s from an English rendering of the Dutch language "Jan-Kees" (two of the most common given names of the Dutch), a nickname used by Dutch settlers in upstate New York referring to the New Englanders who were migrating to their region

Answer 10

It's comes from an old Dutch word. Try google.com.