Does yankee come from young kids ?

Question

Does yankee come from young kids ?

Answer 1

that sure is a stupid idea and a stupid question, from a stupid person

Answer 2

The origins of the term are uncertain. In 1758 British General James Wolfe referred to the New England soldiers under his command as Yankees: "I can afford you two companies of Yankees." The term as used by the British was thick with contempt, as shown by the cartoon from 1775 ridiculing Yankee soldiers.The "Yankee and Pennamite" war was a series of clashes over land titles in Pennsylvania, 1769, in which "Yankee" meant the Connecticut claimants.

Johnathan Hastings of Cambridge, Massachusetts was attributed around 1713 to regularly using the word as a superlative, generally in the sense of excellent.

The Oxford English Dictionary states that one of the earliest theories on the word derivation is from the Cherokee word "eankke" for coward as applied to the residents of New England. Also, as the Northeastern Native American approximation of the words English and Anglais. It has been rejected by some linguists.



Loyalist newspaper cartoon from Boston 1776 ridicules "Yankie Doodles" militia who have encircled the cityThe Oxford English Dictionary suggests the most plausible origin to be that it is derived from the Dutch first names "Jan" and "Kees". "Jan" and "Kees" were and still are common Dutch first names, and also common Dutch given names or nicknames. In many instances both names (Jan-Kees) are also used as a single first name in the Netherlands. "Jan" means "John" and may have been used as a reference to the settlers of New-York (New-Amsterdam at the time) who were Dutch.[citation needed] The word Yankee in this sense would be used as a form of contempt, applied derisively to Dutch or English settlers in the New England states.  Another speculation suggests the Dutch form was Jan Kaas, "John Cheese", from the prevalence of dairy-farming among the Dutch, but this seems far-fetched. More realistically, Michael Quinion and Patrick Hanks argue[8]the term refers to the Dutch nickname and surname Janke, anglicized to Yanke and "used as a nickname for a Dutch-speaking American in colonial times". By extension, according to their theory, the term grew to include non-Dutch American colonists as well.

One influence on the use of the term throughout the years has been the song Yankee Doodle, which was popular at the time of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Though the British intended to insult the colonials with the song, following the Battle of Concord, it was adopted by Americans as a proud retort and today is the state song of Connecticut.

An early use of the term outside the United States was in the creation of Sam Slick, the "Yankee Clockmaker", in a column in a newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada, in 1835. The character was a plain-talking American who served to poke fun at American and Nova Scotian customs of that era, while trying to urge the old-fashioned Canadians to be as clever and hard-working as the Yankees.

The "damned Yankee" usage dates from 1812.[9] During and after the American Civil War (1861–1865) Confederates popularized it as a derogatory term for their Northern enemies