What Is The Meaning Of Yankee?
The origin of the word Yankee is yet to be ascertained. This word has triggered of many debates and many have different types of assumptions as to the origin of the word but the most popular one is that Yankee is a word that has been derived from a Dutch name Janke which means “little Jan” or “little John”. It was a nickname that was very popular way back in the 17th century. Initially this word was also used to denote the Dutch people and the Flemish people in the 1600s and later on was used as a derogatory term for pirates. Today it is used as a term to refer to the Americans from New England. On a broader term it is used to indicate any northerner during the American Civil War. Later this term was used for any inhabitant of America by the British during the 1780s and it is seen in a letter by Lord Horatio Nelson. The word Yankee was further abbreviated to yank and during the American Revolution, American soldiers used this term of derision as a term of national pride.
