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The term Yankee refers to United States Americans, particularly northerners, especially those Americans from the Northeastern United States whose ancestors arrived from Britain before 1700.
History Many Yankees migrated from New England and settled the northern parts of New York and the Midwest, as well as the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Seattle. Yankees as ethnocultural group As an ethnocultural group, large numbers of Yankees dispersed throughout New England, upstate New York, the northern Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest--and even Hawaii. They brought along their religion (Congregational, but also Methodist and Northern Baptist), their politics (Republican), their drive for education, their complex social structure that emphasized brainpower over manual skills, and favored intricate rule-based organizations, like corporations. They tended to dominate business, finance, philanthropy and higher education, but after 1880 were much less successful in politics, where the Irish Americans seemed to have the advantage. The Yankees, who dominated New England, much of upstate New York, and much of the upper Midwest were the strongest supporters of the new Republican party in the 1860s. This was especially true for the Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (after 1860), the Methodists. A study of 65 predominantly Yankee counties showed they voted only 40% for the Whigs in 1848 and 1852, but became 61-65% Republican in presidential elections of 1856 through 1864. Yankees originally lived in villages (avoiding spread-out farms), fostered local democracy through town meetings, and emphasized puritanical morality. They left agriculture as soon as possible for careers in the city. They created high schools and colleges and sent their children, building human capital that was highly rewarding in growing cities. Many were characterized by introspection of the sort that produces diaries. In the United States Within the United States, the term Yankee can have a number of different contextually and geographically dependent meanings. Traditionally Yankee was most often used to refer to a New Englander (in which case it may denote New England puritan and thrifty values), but today refers to anyone coming from a state north of the Mason-Dixon line, with a specific focus still on New England. However, within New England itself, the term is often understood to refer more specifically to old-stock New Englanders of English descent. The term WASP, in use since the 1960s, is comparable. The term "Swamp Yankee" is used in rural Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southeastern Massachusetts to refer to Protestant farmers of moderate means and their descendants (as opposed to upper-class Yankees). The most characteristic Yankee food was the pie; Yankee author Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novel Oldtown Folks celebrated the social traditions surrounding the Yankee pie. In the American South the term is still used as a derisive term for Northerners, especially those who migrate to the South. From 1860 to the 1920s a favored term was "damnyankee" (spelled as one word). Another southern usage is yankee dime which means a kiss. Southerners, by and large, do not care to be referred to as "yank" or "yankee" when traveling abroad. A humorous aphorism attributed to E.B. White summarizes these distinctions: To foreigners, a Yankee is an American. To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner. To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander. To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter. And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast. There are several other folk and humorous etymologies for the word. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the term has also been used by Americans to refer to the New York Yankees baseball team. In other parts of the world In the late 19th century the Japanese were called "the Yankees of the East" in praise of their industriousness and drive to modernization. Outside the United States, especially in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Yankee, often shortened to 'Yank', is used as a colloquial term for American. In Cockney rhyming slang, Yank became septic tank begetting the new nickname Seppo for an American. The term was used extensively in these countries during the world wars to refer to American soldiers. "Working for the Yankee dollar" is sometimes heard as a derogatory phrase for someone who is perceived to have 'sold out' to an American corporation in some way. In some parts of the world, particularly in Latin America and East Asia, yankee or yanqui is meant as an insult and is politically associated with anti-Americanism and used in expressions such as "Yankee go home" or "we struggle against the yanqui, enemy of humanity" (words from the Sandinista anthem). Yanquilandia ("Yankeeland") is a Spanish-language derogative nickname for the United States. In Japan the term yank& Origins of word in English
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