The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-30
THE WORD YANKEE AND SOME
OTHERS.


lima has recently called attention to deri-
walton of the word Yankee which seems
likely to be the correct one. The origin
of the word has been subject of doubt
and conjecture, photographers disagree
regarding it. The latest edition of Web
ster. the International. says:
Yankee, commonly considered to be a cor
rupt pronunciation of the word English or
of the French word Anglais by the native
Indians of America According to Thierry
it is a corruption of Jankin, diminutive
of John and nickname given to the En-
glsh colonists of Connecticut by the Dutch
It was favorite cant word in Cambridge,
Mass, as early as 1713, as a Yankee good
horse, Yankee good cider, etc.
The derivations here given seem fanciful
and far fetched, and the statement of DR..
Gordon, if true, does not throw any light
on the origin of the word. The Century
Dictionary, following the same general line.
says:
common statement as used in the plural
Yankees is a variation of Yenkees. or
Yenghees, name said to have been given
glish colonists. being, it is supposed cor
ruption of English, Or some think, of
the French Anglais. The word is said to
Hudson, who applied it to the people of
New England
This does not throw much light on the
subject. The Introduction of the French
word Anglais is confusing because the
Massachusetts Indians did not come in con-
tact with the French at all. The lexico-
graphers and nearly. all authors agree that
the word was of Indian origin. The sug-
gestion that it was the Indian attempt to
pronounce the word English is not a forced
one, but it would not account for the term
being applied for SO long d time only to-
the people of New England. If it included
all English colonists, why not those of
Maryland, Virginia and other Southern
States where there were Indians? AS
matter of fact, before the revolutionary
war Virginians called the New Englanders
Yankees, and always in an uncompli-
mentary sense.
The new derivation of the word is based
on statement in work entitled Travels
through the Interior Parts of America. in
a Series of Letters by an officer of the
British Army The author was Lieut..
Thomas Aubrey, of the British army, who
toga and sent with other prisoners to
Charlottesville, Va, for safe keeping Here
he mingled with the neighboring planters
and rode about the country. The letters
began Aug. s, 176. and ran to Oct. 80, 1871.
In one written from Cambridge. Mass, Nov.
%, 1777, occurs the folIowing:
The lower classes. of these Yankees
apropos 1t may not be amiss here just to
observe to you the etymolOgy of this term
is derived from Cherokee word, Eankke,
which signifies coward and slave This
epithet of Yankee was bestowed upon the
Inhabitants of New England by the Vir-
ginians for not assisting them in a war
with the CherOkees, and they have always
been in derision by it. But the name has
been more prevalent since the commence
ment of hostilities. The soldiers at Boston
used. 1t as a term of reprOach, but after the
affair at Bunker Hill the Americans gloried
in it. Yankee Doodle is now their paean
favorite of favorites, played in their army
esteemed as warlike as the "Grenadier's
March,
AS this was written in 1777 it comes pretty
near being contemporaneous evidence, and
as Lieutenant Aubrey had spent consid-
cradle time in Virginia he MAJ have OBJ
tanned his information from trustworthy
sources. If there is or was such a word in
the Cherokee language as Eankke, signi-
flying coward. the evidence would seem TO
be almost conclusive.
Whatever the real origin of the word
may be, some points in its original mean
ing and application are worth noting. AS
first applied by virginians and people of
New York to New Englanders, and sub
sequently by the British to all Americans,
it was term rather of contempt, though
Lieutenant Aubrey, writing in 1777, says
that after the affair at Bunker Hill 1.-THE
Americans gloried in it," For a long time
1t was applied by Southern and Western
people exclusively to those of the New
England States, and by foreigners to all
Americans. De Quincy in his essay on
STYLE" said: Yankee. in the American
sense. does not mean q citizen of the United
States as opposed to a foreigner. but a citi-
zen of the New England States opposed to
a virginian, Kentuckian, etc. Wash
ington Irving. in his Knickerbocker, spoke
of Goldfish. tinware, apple brandy. Wealth
ersfield onions. wooden bowls and other ar
ticles of Yankee barter showing that at
that time the word had a local application
and rather contemptuous meaning During
the civil war southerners called all North
ern people Yankees or ''Yanks." and the
latter did not object to it at ALL In fact
the word has long since ceased to se Of
fensive to the Northern people. and during
the war with spain some correspondsrste t,f