Yankee

The term Yankee was originally used as a nickname for the inhabitants of New England in the northern United States, for example, by Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur 's Court (1889 ). During the 1861-1865 enduring Civil War, the term was used by the Southerners in the Southern U.S. derogatory to the forces of the hostile northern states. This responded by making the Yankee Doodle to their battle song and its unofficial national anthem.

Today it is mainly used in the USA in this meaning, while the term " Yankee " is used outside the United States, mostly with abschätzigem undertone to Americans. Especially in Latin countries found the anti-American slogan "Yankee Go Home " distribution, which was directed against the presence of U.S. troops or the dominance of the American way of life at all.

The name is derived possibly from the nickname of the Dutch immigrants from that were contemptuously called " Jan Kees " - Jan and Kees are common in the Netherlands first name. It was also suggested that there is an Americanization of the word " English " in the language of the Wyandot ( Huron ), the pronunciation of the acquired French word " L' anglais " sounds similar to " Y'an - gee ". There are a few other theories, such as that the name of the English corruption of " Yanke " from the frequent Dutch Spitz and last name " Janke " derives, which during the colonial era to refer to Dutch-speaking colonists and settlers in the northeast of the later United States was used (see also Nieuw Nederland).

From the name and the team name to the New York Yankees was born.

Around the turn of the century the 19th/20th. Century, the Japanese were referred due to their enterprising spirit in the modernization of their country as " Yankees of the East". In Japan itself, the term ( transliterated asヤンキー, Yanki ) since the Second World War, a juvenile delinquent.