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Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 55. The word origin today is
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Yankee. Okay. Let's take a look at the note. Nowadays the word Yankee can have
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several meanings. If this term is used by a foreigner, especially someone from you
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know, Britain, Great Britain, Australia , New Zealand, etc. Yankee or Yank for short,
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means an American. It sometimes feels derogatory. Sometimes feels like it's
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almost a little bit you know, putting you down. But it's not always meant that way.
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I've traveled a lot. I've known a lot of like you know, people from Australia they
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call themselves Aussies or New Zealanders , Kiwis and sometimes they it's just an informal way
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to refer to an American too. So it's not always, it's not always that way. But may
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not always be meant that way. Okay. Let's continue here. Within the US if said by a
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southerner you know, someone from the southern states it may refer to someone
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from New England or the northern states. It was especially used during the Civil
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War to refer to a northern soldier. Even though I think at that time it was
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really derogatory. That's why sometimes Americans might think it's a little
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derogatory, and that's why it might even be you know kind of unusual for somebody
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from the south. If they go overseas and they refer to them as a Yank. I mean I'm
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not a Yank. People from the north, they're Yanks. I'm not a Yankee they might
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actually think that. Okay. Let's continue. You know so of course we know that you
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know we also have the baseball team, the Yankees. So a Yankee could be a baseball
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player from the Yankees as well. So that's another way that we definitely
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use it today. Let's continue. Ironically the origin of the word is
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believed to come from Dutch. So you would never think this. But that's where Yankee
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the actual word comes from. At one time New York City, used to be a Dutch colony
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called New Amsterdam. A popular Dutch name at that time was ... well it's
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actually pronounced more like Yankays. So it was spelled J-A-N-K-E-E which was
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pronounced like Yan Kays. Which of course eventually just became
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Yankee. At t that ... yes. So the British already had the nearby colony of
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Connecticut at that time and often used the term in a disparaging way to refer
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to the Dutch. You know, maybe all those Yankees over there. So basically that's
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how it kind of came about. It wasn't really a polite way of referring to them.
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It was like you know, those Dutch those Yankees. They all have a name like Yankee.
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So that's really where it came from in New Amsterdam. All right. Now eventually
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New Amsterdam was switched to the British rule and renamed New York. It is a
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kind of a long story about that. At first the British I think took it by force.
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Then I think the Dutch actually took it back for a short time. And then they came
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to an agreement to just give it back and I think the Dutch were worried about a
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colony they had in South America called Suriname or something like that. And
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they wanted to make sure that they weren't fighting with the British about
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that. They thought that might be more valuable in the future, but really New
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York is the one that ended up being more valuable. Okay and so of course you know,
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this is the reason why the New York baseball team eventually got the name
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Yankees. Because of course people from New York or New Amsterdam when it was
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Dutch who originally referred to as a Yankee in that way. Okay. Anyway, I hope
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you hope you got it. I hope it was informative. I hope it was interesting. Thank
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you for your time. Bye-bye.