or Yankey, Yanky, subs. (American).—1. A citizen of New England; 2. (mostly European) = a native of the United States: also YANKEE-DOODLE. Also as adj. with derivatives such as YANKEEDOM, YANKEEFIED, YANKEEISM, etc. [Of dubious and much-discussed derivation: see quots. and adj. sense.] YANKEE-NATION = the United States. [Century: The word acquired wide currency during the war of the rebellion as a nickname or contemptuous epithet among the Confederates for a Union soldier, the confederates themselves being in like spirit dubbed Johnnies or Rebs by the Union soldiers: see YANK.]
1765. Oppression, a Poem by an American.
| From meanness first, this Portsmouth YANKEY rose, | |
| And still to meanness all his conduct flows; | |
| This alien upstart, by obtaining friends, | |
| From T-wn—nd’s clerk, a M-ld-n member ends. |
1768. Boston Journal of the Times, Sept. [The first mention in print of the famous air.] Those passing in boats observed great rejoicings, and that the YANKEE DOODLE song was the capital piece in the band of music.
1775. GORDON [Letter quoted in Notes and Queries (1852), 57]. They [the British troops at Concord and Lexington] were roughly handled by the YANKEES, a term of reproach for the New Englanders, when applied by the regulars.
1776. TRUMBULL, M‘Fingal, i.
| When YANKEES skilled in martial rule, | |
| First put the British troops to school. |
1809. IRVING, Knickerbocker History of New-York, 276. Codfish, tinware, apple-brandy, Weathersfield onions, wooden bowls, and other articles of YANKEE barter.
1819. J. HECKEWELDER, History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations, (rev ed. 1876), I. xiii. YENGEES. This name they [Indians] now exclusively applied to the people of New England, who, indeed, appeared to have adopted it, and were, as they still are, generally through the country called YANKEES. They say they know the YENGEES, and can distinguish them by their dress and personal appearance, and that they were considered as less cruel than the Virginians, or long knives. The proper English they call Saggenash.
1848. COOPER, The Oak-Openings, xxviii. The sobriquet of ‘YANKEES,’ which is in every man’s mouth.
1854. S. A. HAMMETT (‘Philip Paxton’), Stray Yankee in Texas, 112. The Colonel whittled away at a bit of stick in the most YANKEEFIED way possible.
18[?]. TRUMBULL [BARTLETT]. The name [YENGEES or YENKEES] was originally given by the Massachusetts Indians to the English colonists, being the nearest sound they could give for ‘English.’ It was afterwards adopted by the Dutch on the Hudson, who applied the term in contempt to all the people of New England. During the American Revolution, it was eagerly caught at by the British soldiers.
1848. J. R. LOWELL, The Biglow Papers, 1 S., Int. We have the present YANKEE, full of expedients, half-master of all trades, inventive in all but the beautiful, full of shifts, not yet capable of comfort.
| Ibid. (1862), 2 S. iv. Ez ef we could maysure stupenjious events | |
| By the low YANKEE stan’ard o’ dollars an’ cents. |
d. 1852. MOORE, Diary, vii. 231. Approaching very fast the sublime of YANKEEISM.
d. 1859. DE QUINCEY, Style, Note 1. YANKEE, in the American use, does not mean a citizen of the United States as opposed to a foreigner, but a citizen of the northern New England states.
1861. Death of the Lincoln Despotism.
| And hold them till Abe Lincoln and all his Northern scum | |
| Shall own our independence of ‘YANKEE DOODLEDOM.’ |
1867. The Nation, iv. 11 April, 287. 2. ‘The YANK’ or the equally grovelling ‘nigger,’ one or the other, what we do not know, has corrupted ‘Pollard of Richmond.’
c. 1889. LORD HOUGHTON, ‘Knock at the Door’ [Notes and Queries, 7 S. xi. 106]. Examine him outside and in I’d thank ye, Morals, Parisian; manners, perfect YANKEE.
1890. BROUGHTON, Alas! viii. Hackneyed as only YANKEEDOM and Cockneydom, rushing hand-in-hand through all earth’s sacrednesses can hackney.
3. (American).—A glass of whiskey sweetened with molasses.
Adj. and adv. (colloquial).—A generic intensive: spanking, excellent.
1713. [W. GORDON, History of America … War (1789), i. 324.] You may wish to know the origin of the term YANKEE.… It was a cant, favorite word with farmer Jonathan Hastings, of Cambridge, about 1713…. The inventor used it to express excellency. A Yankee good horse, or Yankee cider, and the like, were an excellent good horse, and excellent cider.
