Yankee : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: Yankee	by the DICT Development Group
3 results for Yankee
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
Yankee adj used by Southerners for an inhabitant of a northern state in the United States (especially a Union soldier) n an American who lives in the North (especially during the American Civil War) Synonym(s): Yankee, Yank, Northerner an American who lives in New England Synonym(s): New Englander, Yankee an American (especially to non-Americans) Synonym(s): Yankee, Yank, Yankee-Doodle
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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 ([bd]Hist. of the Amer. War,[b8] 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).
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Yankee \Yan"kee\, a. Of or pertaining to a Yankee; characteristic of the Yankees. The alertness of the Yankee aspect. --Hawthorne. {Yankee clover}. (Bot.) See {Japan clover}, under {Japan}.