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I hope that this is not a long ago exhausted topic. I have seen several derivations for the term "Yankee". The one that seemed to me the most probable stated that the Indians in Massachusetts had trouble pronouncing "English" and their approximation was "Yengees".Allegedly some of the colonists copied this in joking reference to their own group. Anyone care discuss this? wwh
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old hand
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I've seen it suggested that it derives from the name, Yonkers, which fits in with the idea of its being of Dutch origin, as per Bartleby.
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I got my information from the New England Historical Genealogical Register many years ago, which placed origin almost a hundred years earlier than any Dutch connection. Also for a long time it referred only to New Englanders.
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not to long ago, WOW gave a run down of Yankee-- by geography--, ie, to a European, any American is a yankee, to a person in US, a yankee is a northerner, to a Northerner, a yankee is ...
with some fine distinctions about eating pie for breakfast (or was it donuts with maple syrup?) in any case, it became way too focused on food--
she left of sub-divisions, such as a Connecticut Yankee, and yankee tinker, and the Bronx bombers, who are also known as Yankee's. and we never got around to discussing Yankee-know-how--which i suspect Jackie and everyone else south of the mason Dixon line is pleased to posses, even as they disavow being yankees.
by the way, the mason-dixon line, is the southern border of the state of Pennsylvania settle a border dispute between it and Maryland. It was by a new survey, (done by a Mr. Mason and Mr. Dixon) and the border became the defacto division between north and south. It often associate with "slave holding states vs, non slave holdingstates" which conveniently forgets that NY was a slave state till 1840 or so.
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to a European, any American is a yankee
To this European at least, Yank = US'n, Yankee = Northerner.
Don't know where I first picked this up - might have even been Gone With The Wind! BTW, I can recommend the novel about Mason & Dixon - complex, very interesting.
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The angriest Virginian I ever saw had just been called a Yankee by an Alabaman.
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They were, in the mid '60s, a minor league baseball team in Columbus, Georgia, a farm club of the New York Yankees.
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to a European, any American is a yankee ----------------------------------------- I don't imagine the Canadians are too well pleased by this!  wow
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I can recommend the novel about Mason & Dixon - complex, very interesting.Ah, the well-known C19 surveying firm? Thanks Mav, but with so many interesting books out there I think I'll have to draw the line at this one. BTW, agree that Yankee = northerner, Yank = anyone south of Canada and north of Mexico.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Surveyors are runnin' about numerous as Bed-bugs, and twice as cheap, with work enough for all certainly in Durham at present, Enclosures all over the County, and North Yorkshire, -- eeh! Fences, Hedges, Ditches ordinary and Ha-Ha Style, all to be laid out . . . "Well, actually the Durham Ha-Ha boom subsided a bit after Lord Lambton fell into his, curs'd it, had it fill'd in with coal-spoil. Pynchon, Thomas, Mason & Dixon, p. 17.
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BTW, agree that Yankee = northerner, Yank = anyone south of Canada and north of Mexico Absolutely. The internationally ubiquitous slogan always seems to be written "Yanks Go Home", I don't recall ever seeing "Yankees Go Home". Why is my mind filled with images of John Cleese giving lessons in Latin grammar? Yanks itae domus
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old hand
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to a European, any American is a yankee
-----------------------------------------
I don't imagine the Canadians are too well pleased by this!
Well, we Canadians don't include ourselves in the word Americans, if that's what you mean, even though it's the name of the continent. To us, it's the name of the people from the US. If we talk about people from this continent, including ourselves, it would be "North Americans". And I have heard Yankee or Yank interchangeably in Canada, meaning American (US'n) in both cases.
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Well, we Canadians don't include ourselves in the word Americans, if that's what you mean, even though it's the name of the continent. To us, it's the name of the people from the US.
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Precisely, dear Bean. When overseas, when asked if I am an American I answer "Yes, from the States." I can always pick out the Canadians in the group by the slight smiles ... the others tend to look baffled for a moment. If pressed I explain that we have Canada to the North in America and a lot of nations in South America. Makes for some interesting discussions!
wow
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Dear Bean: Haven't heard the term "Canucks" for quite a while. Is it acceptable? I have three grand-daughters in Canada, and would notwant to offend them. wwh
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old hand
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I recently caught up with a term coined by John Candy (I think) describing the myriad Canadian comic actors who made their names through Second City in Chicago (i.e. Bill Murray, Rick Moranis, Mike Myers, etc), or presumably any Canada-to-US immigrant: Frostback. 
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Frostback sounds nasty. I once saw a list of prominent "Americans" who originated in Canada. The brain drain to our benefit is much larger than I had realized.
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old hand
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In reply to:
Frostback sounds nasty.
What do you expect from John Candy?
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brain drain to our benefit...Same applies to 'English' - how many turn out to be Scottish upon inspection! Perhaps there is a natural law of migration to warmer climates involved
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A NZ prime minister of slightly sinister repute in the late 1970s and 1980s, Sir Rob Muldoon, dismissed emigration from NZ to Oz as "raising the IQ in both countries". Could be it applies Canada->US and Scotland->England as well!
Oh, and I almost forgot, what about Mexico->US? [ducking-for-cover emoticon]
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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old hand
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Canucks is okay by me. We generally use it to refer to ourselves...I'm not sure how I would react to an American using it (not having had the opportunity to try that!) Depends on if it's used in a derogatory sense, I guess. Or if the person is somehow making fun of the word. But there is an NHL team in Vancouver called the Canucks. And CK, I'd heard the quote about IQ before. The thing Canadians often find funny is that lots of Americans don't know their funniest people are imports. Somehow it gives us a feeling of power, a bit of control over a country which unknowingly (or not) controls a lot of the cultural "product" that we receive...
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journeyman
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I am a transplant (from Indianapolis) to South Carolina...
Down here in y'all land (buckle of the Bible Belt) I am not a Yankee to these people. A Yankee is from the Northeast. Whether this refers to personality or location, I am not sure. I may have been a Yankee 30 years ago when I moved here. Thirty years have made some changes. The natives have finally accepted most of "us". Yankee here is apt to be used as a derogatory description.
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Pooh-Bah
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Recreational and shopping trips to and from Canada are very common in Michigan; folks from Detroit cross over for entertainment, folks go across at Port Huron on their way to New York, folks come down to Traverse City for shopping, folks go to Stratford for Shakespeare. Canadian coins get spent as if they were US. "Canucks" is applied to Canadians, including immigrants, but I have never heard it uttered or taken as derogatory, but merely descriptive. Of course, there is so little difference between Ontario Canadians and Michiganians (especially yoopers) that prejoratives would be tantamount to pot/kettle/black.
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