Can someone tell me....?

Question

How the Americans got the nickname yanks, is it because they are all complete t.ossers.

Answer 1

Yanks, w*ankers, toss*ers - all synonymous.

Personally, I prefer fat bastards. Succinct and to the point.

Answer 2

Yank is short for Yankee.

Within the United States, the term Yankee can have many 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 Mason-Dixon line, 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.[3] 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. 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 3

think the reference to all Americans as "Yanks," irrespective of the fact that they might hail from Texas or Utah, is just a matter of description by group and not by specifics. The usage could be construed as mildly-derogatory, but every nation has derogatory names for other nations and the people therefrom -- nothing new about that.

Answer 4

Dutch name Janke, meaning “little Jan” or “little John,” a nickname that dates back to the 1680s

Answer 5

Don't call Texans yanks! We're Texans.

Answer 6

You and Donna need some new material. Or you aren't reaching far enough up your ar$e. Come on now. Pick on Texans they are easy to rile up. Believe me.

Answer 7

You really are filled with such joy! Why don't you find somewhere else to spread your . . . . . whatever?