Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
Yankee or Dixie?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="hearts and roses" data-source="post: 109138" data-attributes="member: 2211"><p>38% Yankee...hmmm. I grew up in and lived in NY, LI, for 31 years and have lived here in CT for the last 14, so why did I score so low as a Yankee....my gawd, I've become homogenized!! </p><p></p><p>Miscellaneous (who cares, right?) factoid:</p><p></p><p>What is the origin of the word "Yankee"? --Listener, WFBR, Baltimore</p><p></p><p>Cecil replies:</p><p></p><p>What's so complicated? You got your yankers, obviously you also got your yankees. However, I can't claim the etymological authorities are exactly lining up to embrace this notion.</p><p></p><p>The origins of "Yankee" have been fiercely debated throughout the history of the Republic, and to this day the Oxford English Dictionary says the source of the word is "unascertained." Perhaps the most widely accepted explanation was advanced by H.L. Mencken, the well-known newsman-scholar (and don't tell me that isn't an unusual combination), who argued that Yankee derives from the expression Jan Kaas, literally "John Cheese." This supposedly was a derogatory nickname bestowed on the Dutch by the Germans and the Flemish in the 1600s. (Wisconsin cheeseheads can undoubtedly relate.) </p><p></p><p>The English later applied the term to Dutch pirates, and later still Dutch settlers in New York applied it to English settlers in Connecticut, who were known for their piratical trading practices. During the French and Indian War the British general James Wolfe took to referring derisively to the native New Englanders in his army as Yankees, and the term was widely popularized during the Revolutionary War by the song "Yankee Doodle." By the war's end, of course, the colonists had perversely adopted the term as their own. Southerners used Yankee pejoratively to describe Northerners during the Civil War, but found themselves, along with all other Americans, called thus by the English during world wars I and II.</p><p></p><p>The alternative explanations--Mencken lists 16 of them--are that Yankee derives from various Indian languages, or from Scottish, Swedish, Persian, etc. James Fenimore Cooper claimed that Yankee resulted from a fractured attempt by the Indians to pronounce the word "English." But most others think Cooper was about as good an etymologist as he was a novelist.</p><p></p><p>--CECIL ADAMS</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hearts and roses, post: 109138, member: 2211"] 38% Yankee...hmmm. I grew up in and lived in NY, LI, for 31 years and have lived here in CT for the last 14, so why did I score so low as a Yankee....my gawd, I've become homogenized!! Miscellaneous (who cares, right?) factoid: What is the origin of the word "Yankee"? --Listener, WFBR, Baltimore Cecil replies: What's so complicated? You got your yankers, obviously you also got your yankees. However, I can't claim the etymological authorities are exactly lining up to embrace this notion. The origins of "Yankee" have been fiercely debated throughout the history of the Republic, and to this day the Oxford English Dictionary says the source of the word is "unascertained." Perhaps the most widely accepted explanation was advanced by H.L. Mencken, the well-known newsman-scholar (and don't tell me that isn't an unusual combination), who argued that Yankee derives from the expression Jan Kaas, literally "John Cheese." This supposedly was a derogatory nickname bestowed on the Dutch by the Germans and the Flemish in the 1600s. (Wisconsin cheeseheads can undoubtedly relate.) The English later applied the term to Dutch pirates, and later still Dutch settlers in New York applied it to English settlers in Connecticut, who were known for their piratical trading practices. During the French and Indian War the British general James Wolfe took to referring derisively to the native New Englanders in his army as Yankees, and the term was widely popularized during the Revolutionary War by the song "Yankee Doodle." By the war's end, of course, the colonists had perversely adopted the term as their own. Southerners used Yankee pejoratively to describe Northerners during the Civil War, but found themselves, along with all other Americans, called thus by the English during world wars I and II. The alternative explanations--Mencken lists 16 of them--are that Yankee derives from various Indian languages, or from Scottish, Swedish, Persian, etc. James Fenimore Cooper claimed that Yankee resulted from a fractured attempt by the Indians to pronounce the word "English." But most others think Cooper was about as good an etymologist as he was a novelist. --CECIL ADAMS [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
Yankee or Dixie?
Top