Ok..i just got back from a trip down south..Maine, (presque Isle to be exact) to visit my girlfriend. ANyways, seems like a great place, lots of quads/sleds around. Anyways me and my girlfriend got talking about different stuff and the word Yanky came up.

Now i've said it before, somthing like, "you yanks get a great deal on pipes" or somthing like that..anyways, my gf thought that might insult some people to call them yanks or yankies or somthing like that. Now call me ignorant, cause i have no idea, i never thought of it as a negative slang term, but maybe you guys can set me straight. I always thought it was the same as calling me a Canuck..

 

I think that some people started calling us that as an insult but i dont think we care we have songs about it and a great baseball team named that and if it is associated with America all over the world than i am proud to be a YANKEE... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

If you call someone a yank if their not a MORON they should not care i would not take it as a insult at all, Its really just a matter of who you say it to some people take it the wrong way others know its a friendly joke!


U dam CANUCK j/k

 

Scotts88,

The term yankie came about during the 1860's and was given to union solders during the civil war.

Chet

 

Cool..i didnt think i was insulting anyone..at least no one ever said to me that i was! LOL

Thanks for the input guys!

 

Just don't go down to the South and call someone a yankee....or if you do at least duck immediately after saying it....and then run!

The origin of Yankee has been the subject of much debate, but the most likely source is the Dutch name Janke, meaning “little Jan” or “little John,” a nickname that dates back to the 1680s.

Perhaps because it was used as the name of pirates, the name Yankee came to be used as a term of contempt. It was used this way in the 1750s by General James Wolfe, the British general who secured British domination of North America by defeating the French at Quebec.

The name may have been applied to New Englanders as an extension of an original use referring to Dutch settlers living along the Hudson River.

Whatever the reason, Yankee is first recorded in 1765 as a name for an inhabitant of New England. The first recorded use of the term by the British to refer to Americans in general appears in the 1780s, in a letter by Lord Horatio Nelson, no less. Around the same time it began to be abbreviated to Yank.

During the American Revolution, American soldiers adopted this term of derision as a term of national pride. The derisive use nonetheless remained alive and even intensified in the South during the Civil War, when it referred not to all Americans but to those loyal to the Union. Now the term carries less emotionexcept of course for baseball fans.

From www.dictionary.com

 

No I don't think your right... The french and british called the US soldiers "yanks" when we got involved in WWI... I just learned this in history the other day, lol.

 

Some people are just WAY to uptight and take everything to heart. Me, I could care less. Its just words and all in fun.... hopefully[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

But I'm sure it dates back before WWI started....

 

Read my quote above....