chanel
Member
Registered: 27th Jan 04
User status: Offline
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americans called yanks??? i cant count the amount of times ive been called this - and still dont know why?? 
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Tracey
Member
Registered: 27th Aug 03
User status: Offline
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Why are Americans called Yanks or Yankees?
The origin of Yankee has been the subject of much debate, but the most likely source is the Dutch name Janke, meaning “little Jan” or “little John,” a nickname that dates back to the 1680s. Perhaps because it was used as the name of pirates, the name Yankee came to be used as a term of contempt. It was used this way in the 1750s by General James Wolfe, the British general who secured British domination of North America by defeating the French at Quebec. The name may have been applied to New Britainers as an extension of an original use referring to Dutch settlers living along the Hudson River. Whatever the reason, Yankee is first recorded in 1765 as a name for an inhabitant of New Britain. The first recorded use of the term by the British to refer to Americans in general appears in the 1780s, in a letter by Lord Horatio Nelson, no less. Around the same time it began to be abbreviated to Yank. During the American Revolution, American soldiers adopted this term of derision as a term of national pride. The derisive use nonetheless remained alive and even intensified in the South during the Civil War, when it referred not to all Americans but to those loyal to the Union. Now the term carries less emotion—except of course for baseball fans.
*ahem* 
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chanel
Member
Registered: 27th Jan 04
User status: Offline
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how much research did u have to do for that?? thanx dude - i thought maybe we were called yanks cuz of the NY Yankees - good to know 
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by jambos_chic
how much research did u have to do for that?? thanx dude - i thought maybe we were called yanks cuz of the NY Yankees - good to know
hmmmmm.........
eitherway, i dont use the term yanks or yankees.....otherwise you get "limey" come back  (we're called limeys because of old ships back in the 1700s and the use of limes to stay alive and stop gangreen etc)
[Edited on 04-05-2004 by VisibleMan]
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Nismo
Member
Registered: 12th Sep 02
User status: Offline
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Skany Yankee's*
* Disclaimer
This does not include Britney or Christina
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Jambo
Member
Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Nismo
Skany Yankee's*
* Disclaimer
This does not include Britney or Christina
Or my woman nismo 
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