posted
...derogatory term for me. Why? I never liked being called one, I suppose. Yankee to me is someone from NYC. I hate NYC. I can't wait for it to slip off into the ocean. Most people outside of NYC feel the same.
But where did the term come from? I've been told that it was a corruption of the term "John Cheese", which was an derogatory term for the Dutch settlers in Northeast US back when we were still colonies.
This has been a long standing gripe, and I hate it. It may seem like nothing to anyone else, but I feel really strongly about it, and I feel like flaming about it.
Thank you for bothering to read my rant.
------------------ Jeff Raven - Having more fun than any human being should be allowed to have
posted
Well, NYC is everyone's favorite punching bag (even for people who've never visited here, let alone lived here). So it shouldn't be surprising when New Yorkers (like myself) get a bit touchy when others try and put down the city.
So :�, :�, and :� right back at ya!
------------------ Lawrence Boucher "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."--Albert Einstein
If your not from The U.S., then any American is a Yank. To a southerner, anyone from the northeast is a Yankee. To someone from the mid-Atlantic or northeast, a Yankee would be a New Englander (not someone from New York City, as you say -- although a New Yorker would be considered a Yankee to someone from the South or from outside the States). So your gripe is not quite accurate since, under no definition, is a Yankee someone specifically from NYC (unless we're talking baseball). It's all relative.
------------------ Lawrence Boucher "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."--Albert Einstein
posted
The actual root of the word Yankee is still a mystery, but the best guess is it comes from the Dutch word Janke. It was originally used by the British as a derogatory name for New Englanders but it was eventually expanded to cover all of LB4747's definitions.
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posted
So, no matter where you are, I'm a yankee according to all of LB4747's definitions.
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Ultra Magnus: "I know you're bored, Rodimus, but with the mantle of leadership comes obligations." Rodimus Prime: "I don't suppose I could interest you in a used mantle?"
posted
Er..there is no Dutch word janke.. or at least there isn't now.. The closest to it would be janker, which would mean crybaby (in this meaning at least) which sounds like a nicely derogatory term :]
Registered: Mar 1999
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yankee \Yan"kee\, n. [Commonly considered to be a corrupt pronunciation of the word English, or of the French word Anglais, by the native Indians of America. According to Thierry, a corruption of Jankin, a diminutive of John, and a nickname given to the English colonists of Connecticut by the Dutch settlers of New York. Dr. W. Gordon (``Hist. of the Amer. War,'' ed, 1789, vol. i., pp. 324, 325) says it was a favorite cant word in Cambridge, Mass., as early as 1713, and that it meant excellent; as, a yankee good horse, yankee good cider, etc. Cf. Scot yankie a sharp, clever, and rather bold woman, and Prov. E. bow-yankees a kind of leggins worn by agricultural laborers.] A nickname for a native or citizen of New England, especially one descended from old New England stock; by extension, an inhabitant of the Northern States as distinguished from a Southerner; also, applied sometimes by foreigners to any inhabitant of the United States.
From meanness first this Portsmouth Yankey rose, And still to meanness all his conduct flows. --Oppression, A poem by an American (Boston, 1765).
posted
Jeff - you say you "hate NYC." What is it you hate? Really. As a transplanted Southerner living (gratefully) in NYC, many of my southern friends and relatives say the same thing without ever having been here five minutes. Re taxes, NY state rakes in billions of dollars from tourists visiting the city. With all due respect, they're not uh, stampeding to Buffalo. Unless you want to count Operation Save America.
------------------ "'I'm afraid there's nowhere for you to sit,' I said coldly; 'the verandah is full of goats.'" --Saki "The Guests"
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