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Yanks
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Is the term yank used to refer to some one from new york or the usa in general?
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...Except that it is my observation through posts on this site as well as other references, that it is a more generalized term applied to all Americans in England. Not unlike the term "Brit" we here in the U.S. inadvertently use for all people living in the U.K., but in reality mean those living in England...
Additionally, it would be uncommon for a Southerner to call a Northerner a "Yank". The univeral term used below the Mason-Dixon line would be Yankee. Especially applied to someone from New York or Boston areas... not neccessarily derogatory in meaning, but certainly can be...
Originally, it almost certainly referred to British settlers in the USA. In British English usage today, it means an American from wherever in that country.
It is possible that it came from a Cherokee - word, �eankke', meaning �slave/coward', but it is far more likely to have come from the Dutch word �Janke', meaning �Johnnie'...(�J' in Dutch is pronounced like �Y' in English, so it sounds more like �Yanke' to British ears)...or even from 'Jan Kees', meaning 'John Cheese'. Apparently that was used as a term of abuse by Dutch settlers when referring to British ones in the early days of the USA. Basically, therefore, it probably just means �Johnnie'. Click here for a website that tells you absolutely everything you could ever hope to know about the word Yank' or �Yankee'!
You Brits have always excelled at insults. A command of the language not inherent with us Yanks. This, from another site, expands on the actual meaning of 'Doodle' in the original song alluded to in Q's post...
The earliest recorded use of Yankee as a term for Americans is in a 1758 letter by General James Wolfe (of Battle of Quebec fame) in which he used the word pejoratively of the American troops assigned to him. In 1775 the British troops used Yankee as a derogatory term for the citizens of Boston. The song Yankee Doodle Dandy was played by the British on their 1775 march to Concord as an insult to the Americans (the original lyrics were bawdy -- "doodle" was a slang word for 'dolt' or 'penis'). After the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Americans adopted the song as their own and taunted the retreating British with it. Yankee thus began to acquire a complimentary sense. The version of the song that we know dates from 1776.
I agree with Clanad that a Southerner would refer to a Northerner as a Yankee, never a Yank. (And I'm a Yankee married to a Southerner, so I've heard the remarks from his kinfolk personally.) When I've traveled to the UK, it seems that Yank is a generic term for anyone from the US. (So what do they call Canadians, then?)
Yankee is used all over, though not all that often, for Americans in general (remember those 'Yanqui go home' graffiti in Latin America in the 50s?). Yanks is a more common term among Brits, also meaning all Americans. I don't think it's been intended insultingly for the last 200 years or so. (Re insults Clanad, remind me which nation called the French 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys'?)
Of course, when I say Americans I mean people from the USA. Mexicans and Chileans occasionally like to point out that they too are Americans and that the USA seems to have hijacked the word.
The Brits call Canadians Canadians.
Yes, jno, but that doesn't demonstrate the lyricism and drollery of, say, this one:
There have been many definitions of hell, but for the English the best definition is that it is the place where the Germans are the police, the Swedish are the comedians, the Italians are the defense force, Frenchmen dig the roads, the Belgians are the pop singers, the Spanish run the railways, the Turks cook the food, the Irish are the waiters, the Greeks run the government, and the common language is Dutch.
- - - David Frost
I rather liked the "surrender monkey" quote from P. J. O'Rourke, mainly because he's Irish in heritage, at least...
ahem, I may have maligned the USA unfairly Clanad - this Wikipedia says the phrase was originally British (though I must say I have never heard it there)
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