Is "yanks" an offensive title

[HoosierDaddy]

Regardless of actual internal geographic location (North, east, west, south, midwest, deep south, New England, West Coast, East Coast, etc), any American from the USA is to me...a Yank. Always has been, always will be, and will always be what I will call them.

The idea that the term 'Yank' might be offensive honestly never crossed my mind.

Crikey mate..!:cool2:

 

[dragonaxe]

I take it there's a good reason for you to be up this late! It must be the middle of the night in Indiana isn't it?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I take it there's a good reason for you to be up this late! It must be the middle of the night in Indiana isn't it?

Right now...9:36 am

 

[dragonaxe]

Right now...9:36 am

exactly!! get back to bed right now! lol

 

[HoosierDaddy]

exactly!! get back to bed right now! lol

I am on my way.
This retirement schedule can be exhausting...

 

[dragonaxe]

I've got 3 kids. 2 of which are twins. It took them from birth to 3 years old before they both slept through a whole night

12 years on, I still don't think I've caught up on the lost sleep lol

 

[Nathan Dodge]

and what term do you prefer: America, US, USA? (is there a difference that's not clear to us Brits)?

OT: I've noticed many UK hosts/presenters/whathaveyou refer to the UK as "This country." It's as though there are so many sensitivities when considering England/Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland. "There are a lot of problems facing this country today." I always interpreted that as a way of letting the listener, regardless of their locale, to fill in the blank as to which area the person using the term was talking about.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

[dragonaxe]

OT: I've noticed many UK hosts/presenters/whathaveyou refer to the UK as "This country." It's as though there are so many sensitivities when considering England/Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland. "There are a lot of problems facing this country today." I always interpreted that as a way of letting the listener, regardless of their locale, to fill in the blank as to which area the person using the term was talking about.

Can anyone confirm this?

I'm sorry Nathan, I'm a bit dumb today. I don't quite understand the quote are you able to clarify?

Having a British person refering to the UK as "this country" is incorrect to start with. So it's no suprise things are confusing for everyone!

 

[Nick D]

I'm a Yank living in the UK. I've noticed that Americans are more often called Yanks outside the US, and America is more likely to be referred to as "the States" outside the US. The latter applies to Americans abroad as well.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I'm sorry Nathan, I'm a bit dumb today. I don't quite understand the quote are you able to clarify?

Having a British person refering to the UK as "this country" is incorrect to start with. So it's no suprise things are confusing for everyone!

I hear "this country" used in place of any of the terms that refer to the United Kingdom/Great Britain/England. I know they all mean different combinations of those places, but it's like a blanket term for any combination of those places. Maybe they're just referring to England. Ah, forget it. I've derailed the topic enough as it is. Sorry that I'm not clear enough on this.

 

[dragonaxe]

Ah, forget it. I've derailed the topic enough as it is.

No worries. A conversation is an organic thing

You're right though. "this country" is an essentially lazy term used by UK folk who can't be bothered to talk correctly. It's a bit like swearing, it's mostly used by those who can't think and talk at the same time lol

 

[Adcurium]

Plenty of Yankees here

Here in Rhode Island, we use the term pretty often and there is nothing offensive about it UNLESS you put some other word before it. For instance, I'm a Yankee. But I'm not a Swamp Yankee. The Swamp Yankees are the Yankees that live inland down in South County. It's offensive when we call them Swamp Yankees. But we do. Becuase they are swamp Yankees.

We also use the term "Yankee" to describe someone who is an Old-New-England type with the 'can do' attitude and ingenuity. My 89 year old neighbor Betty is a Yankee. My wife yells, at least twice a year "Hurry up and get your boots on b/c that old Yankee is out in her bathrobe shoveling her sidewalks!"

I think it is actually a compliment. Well, unless, of course, you add that derrogatory word before it...

 

[scottyrocks]

I think nothing of being referred to as a yank, neither derogatory or affectionate, although its probably both, and often in the same breath.

 

[Yeps]

I have known several Southerners (especially this one fellow from the sticks in Louisiana) who use yank or yankee as a derogatory term for anyone from the North.

The chap from Louisiana used it with the implication that the so called yank was rude, uncivilized, and it had the subtext of xenophobia against immigrants. However, I think that was more him than the term.

I have also known some Marylanders who take serious offense at being called a yank in this sense, since Maryland is (or was) a southern state.

 

[Carnage]

In my experience they will accept "Yanks" a lot easier than the military form of address of "Septics".... I believe that one has to remain an informal nickname for now..

 

[dragonaxe]

In my experience they will accept "Yanks" a lot easier than the military form of address of "Septics".... I believe that one has to remain an informal nickname for now..

hey hey..good old cockney

 

[dhermann1]

Interesting thread, likely never to reach any satisfactory conclusion. But satisfactory conclusions aren't what they're cracked up to be.
Just a little history: the term "Limey" comes from the tradition in the Royal Navy of feeding limes to sailors to combat scurvy, back in the 18th century. Nothing really inherently derogatory there at all.

The term Yankee has a complicated etymology. I'll quote Wikipedia:

"Most linguists look to Dutch sources, noting the extensive interaction between the colonial Dutch in New Netherland (now largely New York state, New Jersey, and much of Delaware) and the colonial English in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The Dutch given names "Jan" and "Kees" were and still are common, and the two sometimes are combined into a single name, "Jan-Kees". The word "Yankee" is a variation that could have referred to English settlers moving into previously Dutch areas.[4]

Michael Quinion and Patrick Hanks argue[6] that the term refers to the Dutch nickname and surname Janneke (from "Jan" and the diminutive "-eke", meaning "Little John" or Johnny in Dutch), Anglicized to Yankee (the Dutch "J" is pronounced as a "Y" in English) and "used as a nickname for a Dutch-speaking American in colonial times". By extension, the term could have grown to include non-Dutch colonists as well."

I think the term "Yank" as opposed to "Yankee" is essentially British.

 

[dragonaxe]

now that IS fascinating!! It's amazing how many common words that are used with no realisation as to their origin

 

[Feraud]

Just a little history: the term "Limey" comes from the tradition in the Royal Navy of feeding limes to sailors to combat scurvy, back in the 18th century. Nothing really inherently derogatory there at all.

No one wants to be called a fruit.

 

[SGT Rocket]

Yank

I actually think being called a "Yank" from any member of the British Common Wealth would be fine with me. I would even feel like it would be a term of jovial endearment.

I'm actually from Texas (and would HATE to be called Tex). I have great, great, grandfathers who fought on the losing side of the civil war. So, I sort of consider myself a "rebel." Or maybe a descendant of a Confederate. I'm big into U.S. and C.S.A. civil war stuff too. So I have a lot of Confederate pride.

But, I wouldn't mind at all being called a Yank from someone from the British Isles.