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Webster 1913 Edition
Yankee
Yan′kee
,Noun.
[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
And still to meanness all his conduct flows.
Yankey
rose,And still to meanness all his conduct flows.
Oppression, A poem by an American (Boston, 1765).
Yan′kee
,Adj.
Of or pertaining to a Yankee; characteristic of the Yankees.
The alertness of the
Yankee
aspect. Hawthorne.
Webster 1828 Edition
Yankee
YANKEE
,Noun.