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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 55. The word origin today is

  • Yankee. Okay. Let's take a look at the note. Nowadays the word Yankee can have

  • several meanings. If this term is used by a foreigner, especially someone from you

  • know, Britain, Great Britain, Australia , New Zealand, etc. Yankee or Yank for short,

  • means an American. It sometimes feels derogatory. Sometimes feels like it's

  • almost a little bit you know, putting you down. But it's not always meant that way.

  • I've traveled a lot. I've known a lot of like you know, people from Australia they

  • call themselves Aussies or New Zealanders , Kiwis and sometimes they it's just an informal way

  • to refer to an American too. So it's not always, it's not always that way. But may

  • not always be meant that way. Okay. Let's continue here. Within the US if said by a

  • southerner you know, someone from the southern states it may refer to someone

  • from New England or the northern states. It was especially used during the Civil

  • War to refer to a northern soldier. Even though I think at that time it was

  • really derogatory. That's why sometimes Americans might think it's a little

  • derogatory, and that's why it might even be you know kind of unusual for somebody

  • from the south. If they go overseas and they refer to them as a Yank. I mean I'm

  • not a Yank. People from the north, they're Yanks. I'm not a Yankee they might

  • actually think that. Okay. Let's continue. You know so of course we know that you

  • know we also have the baseball team, the Yankees. So a Yankee could be a baseball

  • player from the Yankees as well. So that's another way that we definitely

  • use it today. Let's continue. Ironically the origin of the word is

  • believed to come from Dutch. So you would never think this. But that's where Yankee

  • the actual word comes from. At one time New York City, used to be a Dutch colony

  • called New Amsterdam. A popular Dutch name at that time was ... well it's

  • actually pronounced more like Yankays. So it was spelled J-A-N-K-E-E which was

  • pronounced like Yan Kays. Which of course eventually just became

  • Yankee. At t that ... yes. So the British already had the nearby colony of

  • Connecticut at that time and often used the term in a disparaging way to refer

  • to the Dutch. You know, maybe all those Yankees over there. So basically that's

  • how it kind of came about. It wasn't really a polite way of referring to them.

  • It was like you know, those Dutch those Yankees. They all have a name like Yankee.

  • So that's really where it came from in New Amsterdam. All right. Now eventually

  • New Amsterdam was switched to the British rule and renamed New York. It is a

  • kind of a long story about that. At first the British I think took it by force.

  • Then I think the Dutch actually took it back for a short time. And then they came

  • to an agreement to just give it back and I think the Dutch were worried about a

  • colony they had in South America called Suriname or something like that. And

  • they wanted to make sure that they weren't fighting with the British about

  • that. They thought that might be more valuable in the future, but really New

  • York is the one that ended up being more valuable. Okay and so of course you know,

  • this is the reason why the New York baseball team eventually got the name

  • Yankees. Because of course people from New York or New Amsterdam when it was

  • Dutch who originally referred to as a Yankee in that way. Okay. Anyway, I hope

  • you hope you got it. I hope it was informative. I hope it was interesting. Thank

  • you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 55. The word origin today is

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