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 fromYengees, an Indian corruption ofEnglish; and that it derives fromJanke, a pet form of the common Dutch forenameJan. The OED regards the last of these as "perhaps the most plausible".[1]
...in a short time, a kind of infectious mirth and pride in their bargains took possession of the place, and every one bought something, holding out their purchases to view, and praising them in the words and phraseology of the youngyankees, who, finding their own importance, were not slow to avail themselves of it,...
[…]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say theYankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.
Awager on four selections, consisting of 11 separate bets: six doubles, four trebles and a fourfoldaccumulator. A minimum two selections must win to gain a return.
1980 March 20,New Scientist, volume85, number1199:
Betting is complicated with win bets, place bets, each-way bets and complex bets such as doubles, trebles,Yankees and the like.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
2011, Colin Woodard, chapter 17, inAmerican nations, New York: Penguin,→ISBN:
Kentuckians reportedly regarded a Yankee “as a sort of Jesuit” because of his religious zeal, while in Illinois the termyankeed was synonymous withcheated.
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, February 2025.