Us Australians and Brits both use the term ‘Yankee’ or ‘Yank’ when referring to United States Citizens. I’ve never considered it derogatory, heck it’s almost a term of affection depending on how you use it.
But I have heard from secondhand sources that the term is considered offensive in America. Is this true? And if true, is there nuances?
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To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To easterners, a Yankee is an New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.
When Australians and Brits use it. Yes. Not because of Yankee, but because of the other offensive stuff they’re saying for ‘banter’
The vast majority of people use it in a derogatory manner, so yeah.
It’s also inaccurate, I’m not a yankee, would you call every British person a scot?
Generally speaking no, but to people in southern US it means mean in northern US, so they generally aren’t particularly fond of it.
But you lot absolutely use it in a derogatory manner fairly often. Your context and tone in its use absolutely varries.
When Brits and Australians say it? No. It’s not offensive. It sounds stupid.
It really depends on the tone. I wouldn’t take offense to just bring called a Yankee
That said, I do not consider myself a Yankee.
No, I’d probably think it’s funny/weird/out of place though. Especially as a Californian.
“Stupid yanks”. Yes.
It’s not offensive, it’s just weird. It’d be like calling all Australians “Brumbies”. “Yankee” today tends to mean three things in the US:
* The Yankees are a baseball team in New York City.
* In the southeast, a Yankee is an outsider, someone from elsewhere in the US.
* There’s some lingering use of “Yankee” to refer to New England, but it’s getting outdated.
Call a Southerner a Yankee and they’ll object to being called an outsider. Call anyone else a Yankee and they’re more likely to be confused.
In the south we use it as a derogatory term to mean anyone from ~mid way of VA up some people just use it to mean any American without a southern accent
I don’t find it offensive, just a bit odd. To me the term refers to New Englanders, which I’m not.
If it’s used by a Southerner, it certainly is not a compliment.
If it’s used by one of y’all, it usually is used to indicate how stupid or uncultured we are.
If it’s used by someone from Boston, it’s the last thing they say before killing someone with a broken beer bottle.
The rest of us don’t use it.
Yes because I’m a Red Sox fan 😉
So my wife’s family in Alabama call me a Yankee because I’m not southern enough for them. They way they use it make it seem like they are just calling outsiders a Yankee. It seems more derogatory sometimes when they use it.
It just makes you sound like you live in the 1700s to me, TBH.
No, Yankees are usually New Englanders and I’m thousands of miles from there
It’s in a grey area- it’s not widely considered friendly or affectionate when other people wanna call us “Yanks” or whatever, but it’s not truly offensive enough to really be a slur, either.
It’s more confusing and weird when someone really wants us to be bothered by it.
The most famous Revolutionary War song was the British song “Yankee Doodle” which makes fun of the Americans who fought in the French and Indian War. The American soldiers ended up using the song themselves in the Revolutionary War in defiance of the British.
Americans are taught the song in elementary school now.
In the South, it can be used as an insult, but to many people, it holds as much water as being called a “dummy” by an elementary schooler
Once upon a time, if you were from the southeast, calling someone a Yankee was considered an insult because of the whole civil war thing.The southern forces were nicknamed ‘Rebs’, short for rebels, because they were rebelling, and the Northerners were called ‘Yanks’, or Damn Yankees, which was I suppose a holdover from the Yankee Doodle song, but I’m not sure. At one time someone from England might call an American Southerner a Yank only to get a testy ‘I’m not a Yank! I’m from Georgia!’
Times have changed, and now if it’s used at all it’s more or less a joke to point out how weird the people from the northeast are. 😉 I’ll be honest, I haven’t heard anyone use it in years.
So no, it’s not an insult unless someone is living in the past. When Brits and Aussies use it we kind of have the attitude that you’re not using the word correctly, unless you are talking about someone from the northeast, but it’s not worth getting upset over.
Not really, it does feel odd to be referred to as a yankee or a yank. Since we rarely use the term in the US.
It might be used a bit more in the south.
No, but it makes no sense to call a Southerner a Yankee. Yankee refers to people who live in the North. The only time I ever heard anyone use the word in real life was when I would visit my Southern family members as a kid and they’d call us Yankees in a teasing way. It’s not offensive at all, though.
I consider it offensive.
As a Mets fan, it is extremely offensive.
Yanks or Yankees isn’t bad, but when you guys call us Seppos and don’t understand why we think you calling us septic tanks is offensive, it’s not a great look.
It’s like the term “gringo” in Spanish if you know it. Most of the time it’s not, but sometimes it’s used specifically as a slur and is. Most commonly, I associate the offensive usage with the 1800s, being used as an insult toward gawdayumed carpetbaggin Yankee outsiders (Northerners) by Southerners (who would also not liked to be associated with said Yankees themselves). Then probably stuff like Latin American communists who go off on the evils of the imperial core and Yanquilandia. But these are niche examples.
Honestly, if I’m abroad somewhere like Latin America, I like yanqui more than the other Spanish options for what to call someone from the USA.
I don’t know about the vast majority, but it is to Southerners.
I’ve have seen some brits use it offensively.
The term Yankee isn’t really used the usa. I’ve lived in pretty mich every state west of the Mississippi and I’ve only heard it a hand full of times. It is almost always used when references the baseball team “The Yankees”.
If you called me a Yankee, I would assume you think I’m a fan of the baseball team. I’m sure, the next day I would probably connect the dots that you meant Yankee from the 1800s.
I’m sure there are probably people in the usa that yse it more often. Maybe the south or east coast, but it just isn’t a thing for a large part of the usa.
It’s what southerners call northerners. I get called a yankee sometimes by southerners but usually as a joke. Anything can be made into a derogatory remark if you want it to (Gordon Ramsay calling people a donut)
Technically, Yankee is an ethnic term referring to the Dutch/English hybrids that founded the New England colonies (often more derisively called bluebloods). Very few people use it in this sense anymore.
“Yankee” might as well be synonymous with “outsider” here in the South. It’s usually a derogatory term
I’m a proud Yankee, but I’m from the northeast and have lived in this region for at least half my life.
I mean, if you’re meaning to insult me, then I’ll be insulted. I’ve jokingly become offended at the term when used by foreign friends, but mostly because the term only applies to a specific group of people in the US and not all Americans like they think lol
Calling all Americans Yankees is like calling everyone from the UK “English.”
Regarding the difference in humor, in the US it is always better to punch up than to punch down. In other words, it’s ok to make fun of people’s strengths but not their weaknesses.
Here is George Carlin on the subject:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yV8xUorQ8
It just makes you sound stupid.
No, but you’ll end up sounding like you died 160 years ago.