yankee

CEFRB1

/ˈjæŋ.ki/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person from the northern United States.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A native or inhabitant of some part of the United States:, A native or inhabitant of the northern United States., A native or inhabitant of New England.

Examples

  • You can master English without adopting yankee ways.

  • The quidnunctious yankee woman is posted in gynecology. She never breeds.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈjeɪ̯ŋ.ki/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together with a staysail. A sailing boat is typically equipped with three yankee sails of different sizes, number one being the largest.

  2. Alternative letter-case form of Yankee from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

More examples

In context

  • Are you a yankee?

  • […]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.

  • “So, he is the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby,” thought Scarlett. “Oh, well. What else can you expect from a Yankee man and a white-trash girl?”

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

In the Civil War, a soldier from the Union army was known as a blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

First attested in 1765, when it was described as "a name of derision … given by the Southern people on the Continent to those of New England". Various suggestions have been made as to its origin: that it derives from a Cherokee word meaning "slave" or "coward" and was applied to the New Englanders by the Virginians because the former refused to aid the latter in a war against the Cherokees; that it derives from Yengees, an Indian corruption of English; and that it derives from Janke, a pet form of the common Dutch forename Jan. The OED regards the last of these as "perhaps the most plausible".