Why do the British refer to the Americans as "Yanks"?

Question

And the Americans refer to the British as "Limeys"?

Answer 1

The term Yankee has a variety of meanings. Generally, it refers to citizens of the United States, particularly northerners, especially those white Americans from the Northeastern United States whose ancestors arrived before 1776. Many Yankees migrated from New England and settled the northern parts of New York and the Midwest, as well as the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Seattle.

The origins of the term are disputed. One theory claims that 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. (See Martin Van Buren.) The word may also be derived from "yancey", the word many Native American tribes used to refer to Whites during the early colonial period. The first recorded use of the term by an Englishman to refer to Americans appears in the 1780s, in a letter by Admiral Lord Nelson.


Loyalist newspaper cartoon from Boston 1776 ridicules "Yankie Doodles" militia who have encircled the cityOne influence on the use of the term throughout the years has been the song Yankee Doodle, which was popular at the time of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Though the British intended to insult the colonials with the song, following the Battle of Concord, it was adopted by Americans as a proud retort and today is the state song of Connecticut.

An early use of the term outside the United States was in the creation of Sam Slick, the "Yankee Clockmaker", in a column in a newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1835. The character was a plain-talking American who served to poke fun at American and Nova Scotian customs of that era, while trying to urge the Canadians to be as clever and hard-working as the Yankees.

During the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) citizens of The Confederate States of America used it as a derogatory term for their Northern enemies - "Damn Yankees". The term also referred to the border territories.

As an ethnocultural group, large numbers of Yankees dispersed throughout New England, upstate New York, the northern Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest--and even Hawaii. They brought along their religion (Congregational, but also Methodist and Northern Baptist), their politics (Republican), their drive for education, their complex social structure that emphasized brainpower over manual skills, and favored intricate rule-based organizations, like corporations. They tended to dominate business, finance, philanthropy and higher education, but after 1880 were much less successful in politics, where the Irish Americans seemed to have the advantage.

The Yankees, who dominated New England, much of upstate New York, and much of the upper Midwest were the strongest supporters of the new Republican party in the 1860s. This was especially true for the Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (during the war), the Methodists. A study of 65 predominantly Yankee counties showed they voted only 40% for the Whigs in 1848 and 1852, but became 61-65% Republican in presidential elections of 1856 through 1864. [Kleppner p 55]

Yankees originally lived in villages (avoiding spread-out farms), fostered local democracy through town meetings, and emphasized puritanical morality. They left agriculture as soon as possible for careers in the city. They created high schools and colleges and sent their children, building human capital that was highly rewarding in growing cities. Many were characterized by introspection of the sort that produces diaries.

Within the United States, the term Yankee can have a number of different contextually and geographically dependent meanings.

Traditionally Yankee was most often used to refer to a New Englander (in which case it may denote New England puritan and thrifty values), but today refers to anyone coming from a state north of the Potomac River [1], with a specific focus still on New England. However, within New England itself, the term is often understood to refer more specifically to old-stock New Englanders of English descent. The term WASP, in use since the 1960s, is comparable. The term "Swamp Yankee" is used in rural Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southeastern Massachusetts to refer to Protestant farmers of moderate means and their descendants (as opposed to upper-class Yankees). The old Yankee twang survives mainly in the hill towns of interior New England. The most characteristic Yankee food was the pie; Yankee author Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novel Oldtown Folks celebrated the social traditions surrounding the Yankee pie.

In the American South the term is still used as a derisive term for Northerners, especially those who migrate to the South. From 1860 to the 1920s a favored term was "damnyankee" (spelled as one word). Another southern usage is "yankee dime" which means a kiss. For example, "I'll give you a yankee dime if you will do me a favor."[citation needed] Southerners, by and large, do not care to be referred to as "yank" or "yankee" when traveling abroad.

A humorous aphorism attributed to E.B. White summarizes these distinctions:

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.
There are several other folk and humorous etymologies for the word.

Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the term has also been used by Americans to refer to the New York Yankees baseball team

Answer 2

Yankee, the slang or colloquial name given to a citizen of the New England states in America, and less correctly applied, in familiar European usage, to any citizen of the United States. The term was also used by the British soldiers when referring to their opponents during the Revolutionary War, and during the Civil War by both the Confederates referring to the Federal troops and by the Southerners referring to the Northerners in general.

The origin of the name has given rise to much speculation. In Dr. William Gordon's History of the American War (1789) it is said to have been a cant word at Cambridge, Massachusettes as early as 1713, where it was used to express excellence. Dr. Gordon quotes an example of such an expression, "a Yankee good horse." Webster gives the earliest recorded use of its accepted meaning, from Oppression, A Poem by an American (Boston, 1765), "from meanness first this Portsmouth Yankee rose," and states that it is considered to represent the Indian pronunciation of Anglais, and was applied by the Massachusetts Indians to the English colonists. On the other hand, the Scots "yankie," (sharp or clever) would seem more probable as the origin of the sense represented in the Cambridge expression.

Other suggestions give a Dutch origin to the name. Thus, it may be a corruption of "Jankin," a diminutive form of the name Jan or John, and applied as a nickname to the English of Connecticut by the Dutch of New York. Skeat's Entomological Dictionary, (1910) quotes a Dutch captain's name, Yanky, from Dampier's Voyages, (1699) and accepts the theory that "Yankee" was formed from Jan and Kees, a familiar diminutive of Cornelius. ---- (From the Cambridge, England edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911.)

Yankee is also the name of a Professional Baseball team in New York City.

What is a Yankee?

To a citizen of the world, a Yankee is an American.

To an American, a Yankee is a Northerner.

To a Northerner, a Yankee is a New Englander.

To a New Englander, a Yankee is a Vermonter.

To a Vermonter, a Yankee is a person who eats pie for breakfast.

Answer 3

Yankee citizen of New England circa 1700 extended to all Americans, Limeys was because the British navy gave the sailors limes for vitamin c as they travel better than apples etc

Don't they teach history anymore?

Answer 4

Yanky is probably an anglicised version of the Dutch Jantjie, being the diminutive of Jan. (Think John - Johny, Jim - Jimmy etc.)
I understand the Brits became known as limeys for their habit of eating citrus fruits on long voyages at sea, after the discovery that they were a defence against scurvy

Answer 5

Because they're always yankin' off.

It's not just the Yanks who call them Limeys. It comes from the British Naval practice of providing Limes to the sailors to prevent scurvy.

Answer 6

Why British call Americans "Yanks" i don't know but we Brits are called "Limeys" coz we used to sail with supplies of Limes (which are high in vitamin C) on our ships on long voyages to prevent Scurvy (a Vitamin C Deficiency)

Answer 7

Yanks is short for yankee as in 'yankee doodle dandy. The y call us limeys because British sailors in the navy used to be given limes to ensure they had enough vitamin c to prevent scurvy.

Answer 8

The term Yankee has a variety of meanings. Generally, it refers to citizens of the United States, particularly northerners, especially those white Americans from the Northeastern United States whose ancestors arrived before 1776. Many Yankees migrated from New England and settled the northern parts of New York and the Midwest, as well as the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Seattle. Yankee Doodle Dandy!

Answer 9

Slang terms.

Personally, I don't call Americans "Yanks", I just refer to them as "Stupid Americans". I've never heard of the term "Limeys", but it's just slang.

I don't know where it adapted from, and you've got me thinking about that, so I'll go and find out for you!

But you know... You hear someone else say it, you adapt to it, you use it. It just carries on.

-Edit-

After a quick Google search, I could only find that "Yank" in the term you refer to, is a shortening of "Yankee", so I took another Google search to find the origin of it and found this on the Online Etymology Dictionary:

"1683, a name applied disparagingly by Du. settlers in New Amsterdam (New York) to English colonists in neighboring Connecticut. It may be from Du. Janke, lit. "Little John," dim. of common personal name Jan; or it may be from Jan Kes familiar form of "John Cornelius," or perhaps an alt. of Jan Kees, dial. variant of Jan Kaas, lit. "John Cheese," the generic nickname the Flemings used for Dutchmen. It originally seems to have been applied insultingly to Dutch, especially freebooters, before they turned around and slapped it on the English. In Eng. a term of contempt (1750s) before its use as a general term for "native of New England" (1765); during the American Revolution it became a disparaging British word for all American native or inhabitants. Shortened form Yank in reference to "an American" first recorded 1778."

Hope I helped! :)

Answer 10

Why do americans call us British? There are 4 different countrys in britain, so 4 different nationalitys.

Answer 11

What anyone calls me or thinks OF me is none of my business.

I don't even know what a limey is so I certainly wouldn't call anyone that.