# The Terms Yank and Yankee **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 6, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389 "2004-09-06T21:37:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/21 "2004-09-07T03:59:35Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Outside of the US, a Yankee is anyone from the USA > In the US, a Yankee is anyone from back east. > In the east, a Yankee is from north of the Mason-Dixon line. > North of the Mason-Dixon line, a Yankee is from New England. > In New England, a Yankee is from Maine. > In Maine, a Yankee is from Down East. > In Down East Maine, a Yankee eats pie for breakfast. With a spoon. I can’t remember quite how it went but I read a joke once where it began as above, but the last bit was “In the outhouse, a yankee is more than two shakes” ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/22 "2004-09-07T06:31:52Z")
> [@kniz](#): > > That **Devil’s Dictionary** is very interesting. However, if you look under the _D’s_ there is no listing for Damyank. A dam yank would probably be someone that was working in conjunction with swamp yankees to drain the swamps. The term in the South of course is **Damn Yankee**. It is never Damn Yank, but always **Damn Yankee**. I know since I’ve been called that for the last 50 some years. 😉 Well, of course Bierce wasn’t being rigorous he was just having his private kind of fun. And besides, you wouldn’t expect someone born in Ohio who moved to San Francisco to be accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/23 "2004-09-07T08:26:15Z")
**David Simmons** , that is one of my favorite books! > [@](#): > > **SamClem** : IMHO, a person who was labled from “back East” today in the US, would be assumed from above the Mason-Dixon Line. A Northerner. I agree. The same is true for “East Coast.” I gather that for most Westerners, they are not talking about Miami, Savannah, Charleston or the Outer Banks. I would say that the “East Coast” begins somewhere around the Cheasapeake Bay area. I will add that I consider people from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to be Yanks. I must confess to having a particular fondness for Mainers. They just seem to be a little bit “different” from any other Yanks. They remind me of Southerners in their wit and rich culture – but without the preachiness. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/24 "2004-09-07T21:17:40Z")
> [@](#): > > In the US, a Yankee is anyone from back east. Not in Montana, at least. In Montana, anyone who isn’t from Montana (or possible Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, or Alaska) is a Californian. And from spending most of my life in Ohio, followed by Philadelphia and Montana, I’d use “east coast” for anything from Georgia on up. Florida I’d just call Florida, but I might even include it, depending on the context (“Hurricanes always hit the East Coast”, for instance, would include Florida). ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/25 "2004-09-07T23:10:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not in Montana, at least. In Montana, anyone who isn’t from Montana (or possible Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, or Alaska) is a Californian. The Montanans that I knew referred to them as Californicators. ---
**Author:** ![chinesegril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@chinesegril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chinesegril)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/26 "2004-09-08T07:37:04Z")
In the east, a Yankee is from north of the Mason-Dixon line. i a green whit this point 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![NE\_Texan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@NE\_Texan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NE_Texan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/27 "2004-09-08T13:41:18Z")
When I lived in Houston, I knew several people that would swear up and down that anyone who lived north of Conroe, Tx (about 50 miles north of the center of Houston) was a Yankee. ---
**Author:** ![tadc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@tadc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tadc)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/28 "2004-09-09T05:37:19Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > I will add that I consider people from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to be Yanks. So midwesterner=yankee? That, sir, is madness. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/29 "2004-09-11T13:36:56Z")
> [@NE Texan](#): > > When I lived in Houston, I knew several people that would swear up and down that anyone who lived north of Conroe, Tx (about 50 miles north of the center of Houston) was a Yankee. [raises hand] That would be me! Actually, it was Dallas that most of us were referring too. Almost everyone in Texas is a Texan, more or less (except those weird Panhandlers). But a Dallsite is always a Damn Yankee Texan. ftr, before anyone gets offended: → 😉 ← (that’s a winky smiley, indicating the tongue in cheekiness of this post) ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/30 "2004-09-11T13:41:24Z")
Which reminds me… I once worked as a teacher’s assistant in North Carolina - amongst many, many born-and-bred, hard-core southerners. A more wonderful bunch I couldn’t hope to meet, but it doens’t change the fact that I was, to them, a born-and-bred, hard-core Yankee. I finally confided in one teacher that I didn’t know whether to be insulted by the term Yankee? “Oh no,” she said, “at least they’re not calling you a Damn Yankee” “What’s the difference,” asks I. “A Yankee is someone who comes from north of the Mason-Dixon Line. A _Damn_ Yankee is a Yankee that doesn’t leave.” Hmmm. In hindsight, I’m thinking that wasn’t very conciliatory. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/31 "2004-09-11T17:18:10Z")
I grew up in Arkansas, where pretty much anyone not from the South is considered a damnyankee. I’m not sure whether that would include Californians (probably), but it definitely includes Missourians! It is a very common anecdote for someone to reminisce about the day in their childhood when the penny dropped for them and they realized that damnyankee is actually two words (and often that they had been cursing in front of parents, pastors, and maiden aunts without ever realizing it or being reprimanded.) In truth, my family is not originally from the South (we moved there when I was about three), and I don’t think I ever heard the word used except as a joke or in a conversation about Southern culture. Of course, I grew up in Little Rock, not in the country. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@Clark\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_K)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/32 "2004-09-11T20:27:29Z")
> [@tadc](#): > > So midwesterner=yankee? That, sir, is madness. No, it’s imminently logical. If their state fought for the North in the Civil War, they’re Yankees. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/33 "2005-01-09T10:59:53Z")
American themselves like to refer to “Yankee ingenuity” ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/34 "2005-01-09T12:54:07Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Outside of the US, a Yankee is anyone from the USA > In the US, a Yankee is anyone from back east. > In the east, a Yankee is from north of the Mason-Dixon line. > North of the Mason-Dixon line, a Yankee is from New England. > In New England, a Yankee is from Maine. > In Maine, a Yankee is from Down East. > In Down East Maine, a Yankee eats pie for breakfast. With a spoon. NO NO NO!!! With a _knife_! ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/35 "2005-01-09T17:22:57Z")
I live in Indiana, and Indiana soldiers wore US blue in the war between the US and the CSA. I have met folks in Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida who called me a Yankee. They showed no hostility in calling me that. We don’t call them Rebs, though, even though their ancestors fought for the Gray. Nobody has ever called me a DamnYankee, at least not when I was around. On this message board, we have members from all over the globe, so I often call myself a Yank in print just for clarity. We humans are all brothers and sisters, and it’s good to remember that. ---
**Author:** ![rwjefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a6a055/32.png) [@rwjefferson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rwjefferson)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389/36 "2005-01-10T22:26:26Z")
I go with Heckwelder: Its orgins are in the first contact between the English and the Native Americans. English was pronounced more like “Anglish” as in Angles and Saxons - Anglia (Angland = England) Anglish…Angli… Angee…yAngee…Yankee. Yes, the word is often spit out as a slur; especially by Oriole fans. Peace through Liberty rwjefferson [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terms-yank-and-yankee/263389.md?page=1)