[net.nlang] Derivation of Yankee

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?"