What does the word “Yankee” mean?
What I read and heard for years growing up in greater Boston was that the word “Yankee” was an indigenous, Algonquin-language approximation of the noun and adjective, “English.”
An Algonquin origin for “Yankee” made enough sense given what French has bitten off in terms of its word “biftek” and what Irish serves up as “bricfeasta.” After all, dozens of other indigenous New England words remain common in American English: caribou, caucus, moccasin, moose, papoose, powwow, quahog, sachem, skunk, squash, succotash, wampum, wigwam, and more.
Then as a lifelong New Englander who has traveled the world and helped thousands of people explore New England, hearing or seeing the word “Yankee” always prompts me to note who is using it, for clues about the user.
Most people probably recognize that outside the U.S., all Americans are Yankees: “Yanks” as I have heard in a friendly way in Ireland, “Yanquis” somewhat. . . ambivalently. . . in Spanish.
In the U.S. states which made up the Confederacy, Yankees are Americans from northern states. “Yank-kees” as I have heard it.
The meaning of “Yankee” takes a turn or two here in New England, though. Here it is a term for locals descended from original English settlers, English immigrants over the centuries, and even for some of Scottish or Welsh descent.
How might a New Englander use the term? Much of New England’s population has English-sounding surnames such as Adams, Brown, Smith, or Wilson, but has Indigenous-, African-, Irish-, or Latin-American ancestry. Around personal introductions in these cases, a nonjudgmental question might be “Is she / he Yankee or Indigenous- / African- / Irish-American?” And of course the answer might easily be, “No…”, or “All of the above!”
“Swamp Yankee” is another turn in local usage. Adding “swamp” indicates that someone is of English…possibly Scottish or Welsh…descent, but not “Brahmin” and so not enjoying the legacy of wealth or prominence which some Bradford, Hancock, Merriam, or Saltonstall family branches may still.
As I thought about a name for this new company of mine helping visitors explore the best of New England, using “Yankee” stuck in my head despite potentially blurring my professional focus on New England. Going for using the term: certainly the excellent “Yankee Magazine” published by New England Today manages to get its geographical focus across.
Sadly where I want my services to include the historical and ongoing contributions non-Europeans have made to New England and the U.S. — Samoset, Paul Cuffee, Lucy Nicolar Poolaw, and Gladys Tantaquidgeon for example — Wikipedia now suggests that we probably owe Nederlands / Dutch for the term “Yankee”.
Oh well, I’m stickin’ with the name anyway…and of course the “New York Yankees” are another matter entirely for this fourth-generation Boston Yankee Doodle Boy.