Also, have any of you been called that, and if so how did you feel at the time?

49 comments

  2. It’s not an offensive term except maybe to some select elderly southerners, and that’s only because in the US “yankee” is an old-timey term is used to refer to northerners.

  3. I find people horribly misusing it on non-yankees more offensive than someone trying to spite me by calling me one.

  4. No. It’s a silly term that no one really uses seriously. It would be like calling someone a “scoundrel” – it just makes the person who uses it sound strange.

    That being said, if you’re being a brat and are using that word with the intent to be mean, I will judge your actions differently. The word itself still wouldn’t be offensive, but I’d probably classify you as offensive in general and avoid you if possible. (I’m using “you” generically; I’m not trying to apply it directly to you, OP!)

  5. No, not an offensive term. If someone tried to use it as an insult, my normal response is laughter.

  6. Depends on how you’re using it and the tone. Brits are usually very sarcastic and demeaning when using the word in conversations about Americans but elsewhere it could mean a baseball fan. Kind of lost its bite within the U.S., doesn’t mean much.🤷🏽‍♀️

  11. No and I’m from the Deep South. I’d be a little confused if another American called me that, but not someone from a different country. These days in the south it isn’t used to be insulting either, just kind of a tease for people from up north that you might work/be friends with.

  12. I don’t find it offensive, just not really applicable. In my mind a “yankee” is a north-easterner, especially a New Englander of Puritan ancestry. As a Catholic of later immigrant ancestry whose family mostly went directly to the Midwest, it just doesn’t have much to do with me. Calling me a Yankee would be like calling me Dutch…I’m not, but okay…

  13. It would be weird if an American called me a yankee because I am, uh, not from that part of the US. Not offensive but also not accurate. If a non-American called me a yankee that would be accurate, and also not offensive.

  18. It’s not offensive. I just find it silly when Europeans use it incorrectly when referring to all Americans instead of someone from the northeastern US.

  19. I feel like old people from the south think this is an insult, but I’m also a Yankee fan, so I’m not bothered

  20. Nope. Just a description.

    Like any description it can be used as an insult with the right tone of voice, but by itself? It’s just a slightly dated term for someone from the northern US.

  23. Actually just mentioned this recently in another post. My wife’s family is from Alabama, and I’m from Florida. So another southern state. And they have called me a Yankee. The way it came out seemed offensive, and I just laughed and probably made it worse. But after hearing another person calling someone from northern Alabama a Yankee it almost seemed to be used instead of outsider or not a local.

    Context definitely makes the difference though. I have friends who call me Yank or Yankee, but it’s not offensive. When my mother in law was calling me one though, it felt like it was more offensive. I started calling her a Yankee because she was a northerner, and she basically stopped

  24. Only when Europeans use it to try and be offensive. Even then I’m more offended by the intent than the word itself.

  26. If it can be openly talked about, joked about and written out without censorship means no, it lost value as being offensive through time and being joked about it and openly talked about. Words only have power if you let them have it

  27. As a Mets fan, yes, infinitely insulting. But in general, I don’t care one way or the other.

  28. No. I understand that people sometimes mean it to be offensive, but it just doesn’t sound offensive to me. Also, as a northwesterner, I am not a Yankee, so whatever.

  30. It depends on the context. I was born and raised in Michigan and lived in North Carolina for most of my adult life, being called a yankee by a Southerner was almost always a pejorative. It’s not something you’d come to blows over, but it’s not typically used as a term of endearment.

  31. A few weeks ago there was a very obvious troll (probably Russian or North Korean) on /r/worldnews pretending to be a Native American who hates the USA, and they were using “Yankees” as an insult. It was hilarious because nobody in the US uses that term.

  32. Not only have I been called a yankee, I’ve been called a damn yankee. Didn’t bother me any.

  34. I don’t find it offensive, it does get annoying when foreigners try and use it as a slur though.

  35. The term itself is just a word. And I don’t really care. But it is often used in an insulting way, and that I do find somewhat offensive. So it does irritate me about 95% of the time I ever hear it.

  36. It’s not offensive. During the revolutionary war, Americans appropriated the word and took pride in it. Keep in mind there were only the 13 colonies on the East Coast at the time, so that’s generally who the “Yankees” are. People in the South and the West Coast are less likely to embrace it. But I’m from NJ, where a ton of people wear clothing with the New York Yankees logo on it. They’re one of the biggest teams in baseball.

    I was called a Yank by a British colleague in Switzerland. I felt… hungry maybe? I didn’t think anything of the word. We were poking fun of each other and I made a joke about him being from Cambridge.

    Don’t get me wrong, I can tell when someone is trying to offend me, and that’s a dick move. But the word itself is not triggering.

  37. Offensive? No. Generally not.

    I do find it mildly annoying when British folks use it as it always seems to have a negative connotation in those cases. (Also they tend to misuse it as a term for all Americans when it’s generally specific to people from the North/Northeast) But other Americans use it all the time and it’s generally not offensive

  38. No, but if you come to the U.S. there are certain parts of the south if you say it the wrong way towards somebody you might start a fight. We don’t call ourselves Yankees, and generally find it amusing foreigners do. I’ve never been called a yankee directly in person, only in video games with Europeans picking fun at us Americans.

  39. As someone originally from the south, mildly, but I moved to the UK so I kinda dug my own grave on that one.

  40. Not offensive, just awkward in how it’s used incorrectly so often. Calling someone a yankee when they aren’t from New England makes it seem like the person saying it is out of touch and just wants to use it as generic slur. You wouldn’t call a frog a limey just because they’re both from Europe.

    It could definitely be considered offensive in the South, but that’s a hefty tangent to go through.

  41. If you are American it is along the lines of calling someone below the Mason-Dixon a redneck. If you are a foreigner nobody cares.

  43. Yes, because I hate the designated hitter, and therefore the American League since that’s where that particular abomination started.

  44. Not at all. However, here in America “Yankee” is reserved for Northerners or members of the baseball team located in the Bronx.

  46. Frankly I find anyone who throws around ‘Yankee’ as an insult to be ridiculous. All it really means is ‘northerner’ and if you’re keeping score that’s 1-0 Yankees. I think of it as a litmus test – someone calls me a Yankee I can immediately disregard their opinion on any other topic.

    When I moved from Chicago to Houston at 15, one of the ‘native texans’ (aka his family had been here for 10 generations*) attempted to write “go home gay yankee” on my locker. I say attempted because he did not write it on my locker. He wrote it on the locker of another ‘native Texan’ who was not a POS about 10 lockers down. I helped that guy clean his locker as it was obviously meant for me. Also I’m not gay, not that it matters.

    FWIW as seniors there was a senior retreat (private school) and one of the activities was admitting things you were sorry for, and he publicly apologized to me.

    TLDR, no it’s not offensive to call someone a Yankee, but if you try to use it as an insult, I will disregard your opinion on all other topics.

    *’Native Texan is their term for the decedents of Stephen Auston’s 500 families he brought to Texas. Yes it disregards the native people who had been there for 15,000 years. Please look up US history regarding native Americans for a deeper understanding of just how we disregard native claims to this land.

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