What is the original meaning of Yankee?

Answer 1

The word first entered the English language in 1683 from Dutch. The exact etymology of the word is unclear, and several possibilities exist:

1. It was a disparaging nickname used by Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (New York) for English colonists in Connecticut. It may have been derived from the Dutch Du Janke, literally Little John, a diminutive of the common name Jan.
2. It may have been derived from the Dutch Jan Kes, the familiar form of John Cornelius. Again, an adulteration of a common English name.
3. It could have been an alteration of the Dutch Jan Kees or Jan Kaas, literally John Cheese, a derogatory term assigned to the Dutch by the Flemish and often applied to freebooters (pirates), which the Dutch in the New World applied to the later arriving English settlers.

During the American Revolution, Yankee was a disparaging term used by the British for all Americans.

During the period of the Civil War, the term "Yankee" was used to describe anyone from or those who sided with the north; those from the south alternately referred in a disparaging way as "Sesh" or "Secessionists." The New York Yankees were named this because New York was a major state in the north.