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Yankee

noun
/ˈjæŋ.ki/

Etymology

First attested in 1765, when it was described as "a name of derision … given by the Southern people on the Continent to those of New England". Various suggestions have been made as to its origin: that it derives from a Cherokee word meaning "slave" or "coward" and was applied to the New Englanders by the Virginians because the former refused to aid the latter in a war against the Cherokees; that it derives from Yengees, an Indian corruption of English; and that it derives from Janke, a pet form of the common Dutch forename Jan. The OED regards the last of these as "perhaps the most plausible".

  1. derived from forename Jan

Definitions

  1. A native or inhabitant of some part of the United States

    A native or inhabitant of some part of the United States:

    • […]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.
    • “So, he is the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby,” thought Scarlett. “Oh, well. What else can you expect from a Yankee man and a white-trash girl?”

  2. Any individual associated with the Union

    Any individual associated with the Union; that is, the United States federal government, during the American Civil War.

  3. A player for the New York Yankees.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. A large triangular headsail used in light or moderate winds and set on the fore topmast…

      A large triangular headsail used in light or moderate winds and set on the fore topmast stay. Unlike a genoa it does not fill the whole fore triangle, but is set in combination with the working staysail.

    2. A wager on four selections, consisting of 11 separate bets

      A wager on four selections, consisting of 11 separate bets: six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold accumulator.

      • Betting is complicated with win bets, place bets, each-way bets and complex bets such as doubles, trebles, Yankees and the like.

    3. to cheat, trick or swindle somebody

      to cheat, trick or swindle somebody; to misrepresent something

      • Kentuckians reportedly regarded a Yankee “as a sort of Jesuit” because of his religious zeal, while in Illinois the term yankeed was synonymous with cheated.

    4. A headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together…

      A headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together with a staysail. A sailing boat is typically equipped with three yankee sails of different sizes, number one being the largest.

    5. Alternative letter-case form of Yankee from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

    6. Obsolete form of Yankee (“either a US Northerner or any US American”).

      • As the coach was by law limited to a slow pace on the bridge, we had leisure to read the wayward fancies of our predecessors inscribed in chalk, and many a true yankee name did we recognize;—the bridge is a kind of traveller’s register.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for Yankee. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA