Editing Yankee (section)

==Etymology and historical usage of the term==
===New Netherland origin===
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Most linguists look to [[Dutch language]] sources, noting the extensive interaction between the Dutch colonists in [[New Netherland]] (parts of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware) and the English colonists in [[New England]] ([[Massachusetts Bay Colony|Massachusetts]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], and [[Connecticut Colony|Connecticut]]).<ref name="MW"/> The exact application, however, is uncertain; some scholars suggest that it was a term used in derision of the Dutch colonists, others that it was derisive of the English colonists.

[[Michael Quinion]] and [[Patrick Hanks]] argue that the term comes from the Dutch ''Janneke'', a diminutive form of the given name ''Jan''<ref name=posh>{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/reviews/re-por1.htm|title=World Wide Words: Port Out, Starboard Home|website=World Wide Words}}</ref> which would be Anglicized by New Englanders as "Yankee" due to the Dutch pronunciation of ''J'' being the same as the English ''Y''. Quinion and Hanks posit that it was "used as a nickname for a Dutch-speaking American in colonial times" and could have grown to include non-Dutch colonists, as well.<ref name=posh/> The [[Oxford English Dictionary]] calls this theory "perhaps the most plausible".

Alternatively, the Dutch given names ''Jan'' ({{IPA|nl|jɑn|lang}}) and ''[[Kees (given name)|Kees]]'' ({{IPA|nl|keːs|lang}}) have long been common, and the two are sometimes combined into a single name (Jan Kees). Its Anglicized spelling ''Yankee'' could, in this way, have been used to mock Dutch colonists. The chosen name ''Jan Kees'' may have been partly inspired by a dialectal rendition of ''Jan Kaas'' ("John Cheese"), the generic nickname that Southern Dutch used for Dutch people living in the North.<ref name=yanky>Harper, Douglas. ''Online Etymology Dictionary'': "[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=yankee Yankee]". 2013. Accessed 13 Jul 2013.</ref>

The [[Online Etymology Dictionary]] gives its origin as around 1683, attributing it to English colonists insultingly referring to Dutch colonists. English privateer [[William Dampier]] relates [[A New Voyage Round the World|his dealings]] in 1681 with Dutch privateer Captain Yanky or Yanke. Linguist [[Jan de Vries (linguist)|Jan de Vries]] notes that there was mention of a pirate named ''[[Yankey Willems|Dutch Yanky]]'' in the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book | last = de Vries | first = Jan | year = 1971 | title = Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek | language = nl | at = Headword: yankee}}</ref> ''[[The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves]]'' (1760) contains the passage, "Haul forward thy chair again, take thy berth, and proceed with thy story in a direct course, without yawing like a Dutch yanky."<ref>''The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves'', [[Tobias Smollett]], chapter 3</ref> According to this theory, Dutch settlers of [[New Amsterdam]] started using the term against the English colonists of neighboring Connecticut.<ref name=yanky />

===New England use===
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British General [[James Wolfe]] made the earliest recorded use of the word "Yankee" in 1758 when he referred to the New England soldiers under his command. "I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more, because they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance".<ref name="Mathews">Mathews (1951) p 1896</ref> Later British use of the word was in a derogatory manner, as seen in a cartoon published in 1775 ridiculing "Yankee" soldiers.<ref name="Mathews" /> New Englanders themselves employed the word in a neutral sense; the "[[Pennamite–Yankee War]]", for example, was a series of clashes in 1769 over land titles in Pennsylvania between settlers from [[Connecticut Colony]] and "Pennamite" settlers from [[History of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]].

The meaning of ''Yankee'' has varied over time. In the 18th century, it referred to residents of New England descended from the original English settlers of the region. [[Mark Twain]] used the word in this sense the following century in his 1889 novel ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]''. As early as the 1770s, British people applied the term to any person from the United States. In the 19th century, Americans in the southern United States employed the word in reference to Americans from the northern United States, though not to recent immigrants from Europe. Thus, a visitor to [[Richmond, Virginia]], commented in 1818, "The enterprising people are mostly strangers; Scots, Irish, and especially New England men, or Yankees, as they are called".<ref>See Mathews, (1951) pp. 1896–98 and [http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50288716 ''Oxford English Dictionary'', quoting M. Birkbeck]</ref>

Historically, it has also been used to distinguish American-born Protestants from later immigrants, such as Catholics of Irish descent.<ref name="tager">{{cite book|first1=Jack|last1=Tager|title=Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence|url=https://archive.org/details/bostonriotsthree00tage|url-access=registration|publisher=Northeastern University Press|date=2001|isbn=1555534600|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bostonriotsthree00tage/page/107 107], 120-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Harkins |first1=Edward Francis |title=The Schemers: A Tale of Modern Life |date=1903 |publisher=L.C. Page & Company |page=243 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EutEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA243}}</ref>

===Rejected etymologies===
Many etymologies have been suggested for the word ''Yankee'', but modern linguists generally reject theories that suggest it originated in any Indigenous languages.<ref name="MW"/> This includes a theory put forth by a British officer in 1789, who said that it was derived from the [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]] word ''eankke'' meaning "coward"—despite the fact that no such word existed in the Cherokee language.<ref name="MW">''The Merriam-Webster new book of word histories'' (1991) pp. 516–517.</ref> Another theory surmised that the word was borrowed from the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]]<ref>The Wyandot people were called Hurons by the French.</ref> pronunciation of the French ''l'anglais'', meaning "the Englishman" or "the English language", which was sounded as ''Y'an-gee''.<ref name="MW"/><ref>Mathews (1951) p.&nbsp;1896.</ref>

American musicologist [[Oscar Sonneck]] debunked a romanticized false etymology in his 1909 work ''Report on "The Star-Spangled Banner", "Hail Columbia", "America", "Yankee Doodle"''. He cited a popular theory that claimed the word came from a tribe who called themselves ''Yankoos'', said to mean "invincible". The story claimed that New Englanders had defeated this tribe after a bloody battle, and the remaining ''Yankoo'' Indians transferred their name to the victors—who were "agreeable to the Indian custom". Sonneck notes that multiple American writers since 1775 had repeated this story as if it were fact, despite what he perceived to be holes in it. It had never been the tradition of any Indian tribe to transfer their name to other peoples, according to Sonneck, nor had any settlers ever adopted an Indian name to describe themselves.<ref>This is not to be confused with adopting an Indian name for a geographical location.</ref> Sonneck concludes by pointing out that there was never a tribe called the ''Yankoos''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Sonneck | first = O. G. | title = Report on "The star-spangled banner", "Hail Columbia", "America", "Yankee Doodle | publisher = University Press of the Pacific | location = Honolulu, Hawaii | year = 2001 | page = 83 | isbn = 0898755328 }}</ref>