Adjacent Words

Yankee definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

YANKEE, n. A corrupt pronunciation of the word English by the native Indians of America.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: used by Southerners for an inhabitant of a northern state in the United States (especially a Union soldier) n
1: an American who lives in the North (especially during the American Civil War) [syn: Yankee, Yank, Northerner]
2: an American who lives in New England [syn: New Englander, Yankee]
3: an American (especially to non-Americans) [syn: Yankee, Yank, Yankee-Doodle]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1758 1. a. a native or inhabitant of New England b. a native or inhabitant of the northern United States 2. a native or inhabitant of the United States • Yankeedom noun • Yankeeism noun II. Date: 1952 — a communications code word for the letter y

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. colloq. 1 often derog. = YANK. 2 US an inhabitant of New England or one of the northern States. 3 hist. a Federal soldier in the Civil War. 4 a type of bet on four or more horses to win (or be placed) in different races. 5 (attrib.) of or as of the Yankees. Phrases and idioms: Yankee Doodle 1 an American tune and song regarded as a national air. 2 = YANKEE. Etymology: 18th c.: orig. uncert.: perh. f. Du. Janke dimin. of Jan John attested (17th c.) as a nickname

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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).

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(Yankees) 1. A Yankee is a person from a northern or north-eastern state of the United States. (mainly AM) N-COUNT 2. Some speakers of British English refer to anyone from the United States as a Yankee. This use could cause offence. (INFORMAL) N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

Acadian, Anglo-Indian, Bolshevik, Bolshevist, Bolshie, Brooklynese, Cajun, Canadian French, Carbonarist, Carbonaro, Castroist, Castroite, Charley, Cockney, Communist, Cong, Down-Easter Yankee, Easterner, Fenian, French Canadian, Guevarist, Gullah, Jacobin, Leninist, Maoist, Marxist, Mau-Mau, Midland, Midland dialect, New England dialect, New Englander, Northener, Northman, Pennsylvania Dutch, Puritan, Red, Red Republican, Roundhead, Sinn Feiner, Trotskyist, Trotskyite, VC, Vietcong, Westerner, Yankee Doodle, Yorkshire, anarch, anarchist, bonnet rouge, bundle of isoglosses, class dialect, criminal syndicalist, dialect, dialect atlas, dialect dictionary, eastlander, idiom, isogloss, linguistic atlas, linguistic community, linguistic island, local dialect, localism, northlander, patois, provincialism, rebel, red, regional accent, regionalism, revolutionary, revolutionary junta, revolutioner, revolutionist, revolutionizer, sans-culotte, sans-culottist, southlander, speech community, subdialect, subversive, syndicalist, terrorist, westlander