Question: what is the etymology of the word yankee?
Answer: Dutch origin Michael Quinion and Patrick Hanks argue that the term comes from the Dutch name Janneke, a diminutive form of Jan (John) which would be Anglicized as "Yankee" due to the Dutch pronunciation of J as the English Y. ... Its Anglicized spelling Yankee could, in this way, have been used to mock Dutch colonists.