Yankee!

[Dakine 26]

Do you consider a naturalized alien a "Yankee" or is the word reserved for native born Americans?

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Yankee is actually the term used to refer to a citizen resident in the northern states:-) - that is those states north of the Mason Dixon line. It has evolved just to mean any American now, except in the South where anyone who isn't from the South is still a Yankee.

[elishav 0]

Yankee is actually the term used to refer to a citizen resident in the northern states:-) - that is those states north of the Mason Dixon line. It has evolved just to mean any American now, except in the South where anyone who isn't from the South is still a Yankee.

Good answer. I was thinking the same thing except that is not a word I ever hear in California so I was thinking it was still in use in other parts of the country.

[warlord 72]

Yankee is actually the term used to refer to a citizen resident in the northern states:-) - that is those states north of the Mason Dixon line. It has evolved just to mean any American now, except in the South where anyone who isn't from the South is still a Yankee.

Good answer. I was thinking the same thing except that is not a word I ever hear in California so I was thinking it was still in use in other parts of the country.

It's pretty much for North Eastern US. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey etc. You don't here it out west here either. Everytime I do hear it, it's from someone in Canada. I have to explain to them that I do not live in New York State...

p.s. If you're talking about a naturalized "American" citizen though, then yes you would be called an American. I just don't know how New York people view their ownership of Yankee at all. You may have to be born in New York for that title, not sure...

Edited October 21, 2009 by warlord

[antda 13]

Hi Everyone,

Ok, in answer to the question about the word "yankee" (which I looked up online)...

The term Yankee, sometimes abbreviated to Yank, has a few related meanings, often referring to someone either of general United States origin or more specifically, within the US, to people of Northern origin or heritage. Its meaning has varied over time. Originally the term referred to residents of New England as used by Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. During and after the American Civil War its meaning expanded to include any Northerner or resident of the states formerly on the Union side of the war, and included anyone from the Northeast (New England, Mid-Atlantic, and upper Great Lakes states). After the Civil War the term gradually reverted to its earlier meaning of New Englander,[1]

Outside the United States, Yank or Yankee is a slang term, sometimes but not always derogatory, for any U.S. citizen.

Within the United States, the term Yankee can have many different contextually and geographically-dependent meanings.

Traditionally Yankee was most often used to refer to a New Englander (in which case it may suggest Puritanism and thrifty values), but today refers to anyone coming from a state north of the Mason-Dixon Line, with a specific focus still on New England or New York. However, within New England itself, the term refers more specifically to old-stock New Englanders of English descent. The term WASP, in use since the 1960s, refers by definition to all Protestants of English ancestry, including Yankees and Southerners, though its meaning is often extended to refer to any Protestant white U.S. citizen.

The term "Swamp Yankee" is used in rural Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southeastern Massachusetts to refer to Protestant farmers of moderate means and their descendants (as opposed to upper-class Yankees).[9] Scholars note that the famous Yankee "twang" survives mainly in the hill towns of interior New England.[10] The most characteristic Yankee food was the pie; Yankee author Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novel Oldtown Folks celebrated the social traditions surrounding the Yankee pie.

In the Southern United States, the term is sometimes used as a derisive term for Northerners, especially those who have migrated to the South. The more polite term is "Northerner". In an old joke, a Southerner states, "I was 21 years old before I learned that 'damn' and 'yankee' were separate words." Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas pointed out as late as 1966, "The very word 'Yankee' still wakens in Southern minds historical memories of defeat and humiliation, of the burning of Atlanta and Sherman’s march to the sea, or of an ancestral farmhouse burned by Cantrill’s raiders."[11] In Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary 'Yankee' is defined thusly: "n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In the Southern States the word is unknown. (See DAMNYANK.)"

A humorous aphorism attributed to E.B. White summarizes these distinctions:

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.

To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.

To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.

To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.

To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.

And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

Another variant of the aphorism replaces the last line with: "To a Vermonter, a Yankee is somebody who still uses an outhouse." There are several other folk and humorous etymologies for the term.

One of Mark Twain's most famous novels, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court popularized the word as a nickname for residents of Connecticut.

It is also the official team nickname of a Major League Baseball franchise, the New York Yankees.

A film about Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was titled The Magnificent Yankee.

A play on that title became the title of a book about the ball club's dynasty: The Magnificent Yankees

In English-speaking countries outside the United States, especially in Australia, Canada[12], Ireland[13], New Zealand and Britain, Yankee, almost universally shortened to Yank, is used as a derogatory, playful or referential colloquial term for Americans.

In certain Commonwealth countries, notably Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, "Yank" has been in common use since at least World War II, when thousands of Americans were stationed in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Depending on the country, "Yankee" may be considered mildly derogatory.[14]

In some parts of the world, particularly in Latin American countries, Spain and in East Asia, yankee or yanqui (phonetic Spanish spelling of the same word) is used sometimes politically associated with anti-Americanism and used in expressions such as "Yankee go home" or "we struggle against the yanqui, enemy of mankind" (words from the Sandinista anthem). In Argentina and Paraguay the term refers to someone who is from the US and is rarely derogatory.[citation needed] In Venezuelan Spanish there is the word pitiyanqui, derived ca. 1940 around the Oil Industry from petty yankee, a derogatory term for those who profess an exaggerated and often ridiculous admiration for anything from the United States.

In the late 19th century the Japanese were called "the Yankees of the East" in praise of their industriousness and drive to modernization.[15] In Japan since the late 1970s, the term Yankī has been used to refer to a type of delinquent youth.[16]

In Finland, by some people the word jenkki (yank) is sometimes used to refer to any U.S. citizen, and with the same group of people Jenkkilä (Yankeeland) refers to the United States itself. It isn't considered offensive or anti-U.S., but rather a spoken language expression.[17] However, more commonly a U.S. citizen is simply called amerikkalainen (american) and the country itself simply 'Amerikka' (America).

The variation, "Yankee Air Pirate" was used during the Vietnam War in North Vietnamese propaganda to refer to the United States Air Force.

In Iceland, the word kani is used for Yankee or Yank in the mildly derogatory sense. When referring to residents of the United States, norðurríkjamaður or more commonly bandaríkjamaður, is used.

In Polish, the word jankes can refer to any U.S. citizen, has little pejorative connotation if at all, and its use is somewhat obscure (it is mainly used to translate the English word yankee in a not strictly formal context, e.g. in a movie about the American Civil War).

In Sweden the word is translated to jänkare. The word is not itself a negative expression, though it can of course be used as such depending on context.

Joshua Slocum, in his 1899 book Sailing Alone Around the World in his flimsy sloop Spray, refers to Nova Scotians as being the only or true Yankees. It thus may be implied, as he himself was a Nova Scotian, that he had pride in his ancestry. "Yankee" in this instance, instead of connoting a form of derision, is therefore a form of praise; perhaps relevant to the hardy seagoing people of the East Coast at that time.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee

Intesting to learn more about this word, indeed! Lol...In general terms, in my opinion, the word "yankee" is more of a casual saying, referring to someone who lives in the northern part of the USA, and that's pretty much it. I (nor do many other people I think) don't find it offensive, or anything like that to be referred to as such, if it is used in the right context and not in an insulting way.

Heck, there's even a popular baseball team called the Yankees....Go Yankees! (lol..though I'm not much of a baseball fan here)

So yes, I'm proud to be a Yankee (lol..I live in New York State, does that count?)!

Though if one becomes an American through naturalization, birth, or whatever else, they are just called "American". There is no north or south, or yankee, or any other divide or separation, when one becomes an "American". We all live in America, are proud to be in such a country!

So yes, I'm proud to be an American too.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your "American" journeys too.

Ant (lol..Yankee, American, Canadian, VJer, and whatever else...)

Edited October 21, 2009 by Ant+D+A

[Dakine 26]

The reason I posted is someone on here posted their alien wife was a "yankee" since she got her US citizenship.

Didn't sound right.