bob@cadovax.UUCP (Bob "Kat" Kaplan) (03/26/85)
From: sra@oddjob.UUCP (Scott R. Anderson) > We were discussing the origin of the word "Yankee", which originally > referred to New Englanders. Webster's Third states that it is unknown. Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition (World Publishing Co., 1956) states: [prob < D. _Jan_Kees_ (taken as pl.); _Jan_, John + _Kees_, dial. form of _kaas_, cheese; orig. (_Jan_Kaas_) used as disparaging for a Hollander, later for Dutch freebooter; applied by colonial Dutch in New York to English settlers in Connecticut. For discussion of this and other hypotheses see H. L. Mencken, _Am._Lang,_Suppl._I_, pp 192-197] Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1953) states: [often derived through an early _Yengee(s)_, fr. Am. Ind. corrupt. of _English_ or F. _Anglais_, but prob. fr. a D. dim. of _Jan_ John, as applied by the Dutch of N. Y. to the English of Conn.] The OED lists the above etymologies and more, including the derivation of _Yankee_ from the Cherokee _eankke_, which means slave or coward. It looks like the best thing to do is to take a look at Mencken. -- Bob Kaplan "Where is it written that we must destroy ourselves?"