# Yankee Doodle Old English Lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 16, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303 "2003-06-16T21:27:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![saul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@saul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saul)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/1 "2003-06-16T21:27:02Z")
Does anyone know what are the Old English Lyrics to Yankee Doodle? TIA; 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/2 "2003-06-16T22:00:36Z")
I don’t think there were any Old English lyrics to the song. It started out as a Dutch harvesting song, then the music was used as an English nursery rhyme > [@](#): > > Lucy Locket lost her pocket > Kitty Fisher found it. > But ne’er a penny was there in’t > 'Cept the binding round it Then, I guess, the tune was used as a Royalist song in the Civil War, but I don’t know much about that. Then, finally, in the French and Indian War, Richard Schuckburgh, a surgeon in the English army wrote the first verse we know today to satirize colonial pretentiousness: > [@](#): > > Yankee Doodle went to town, > Riding on a pony. > Stuck a feather in his cap, > and called it Macaroni > > Yankee Doodle, keep it up, > Yankee Doodle, dandy > Mind the music and the step > And with the girls, be handy Macaroni was English slang for people who overdressed and were overly concerned with fashon in dress and behavior. So, the verse says that the unsophisticated colonial puts a feather in his cap, and now he thinks he’s a dandy. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/3 "2003-06-17T04:33:52Z")
**Captain**. I’m not sure where you’re getting your cites from, but some of them are not true. Can you give any help here with cites? I know that we’ve done much of this on previous threads, but I am falling asleep now. I don’t know if I have the energy to find them. And to post corrections to your assertions. Watch for updates. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/4 "2003-06-17T04:58:17Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myankeedoodle.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myankeedoodle.html) That’s an article written by **SDSTAFF DEX**. DEX says > [@](#): > > A popular story traces the origin of the song back to the French and Indian War (roughly the 1750s) and a Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, a British army physician. He was so amused at the sight of the disheveled and ragged colonial soldiers that he allegedly decided to mock them by setting some nonsense lyrics to a familiar English tune. “Yankee” of course refers to New Englanders; the origin of “Doodle” is unknown. Which words were used originally isn’t known, since none made their way into print until much later, and as I say there were many versions. I’m pretty sure the Shuckburgh origin has been discredited, according to my _Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes_ by Iona and Peter Opie. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/5 "2003-06-17T05:00:42Z")
Note that I’m not correcting DEX, as he said “A popular story…” and then allowed as how there are no words extant to back it up. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/6 "2003-06-17T05:23:32Z")
[Previous article on “Yankee Doodle”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=16018), with posts referring to a connection in old lyrics with Oliver Cromwell. Could be reaching a bit, though. A general, popular history [here.](http://www.yankeedoodles.net/generalhistory2.htm) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/7 "2003-06-17T05:28:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > **Macaroni was English slang for people who overdressed and were overly concerned with fashon in dress and behavior.** Italian fashion was considered cool so “macaroni” meant chic or trendy. The Americans were considered to be very provincial. So much so that they thought that putting a feather in their hat made them look hip. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/8 "2003-06-17T05:37:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\ ***Captain**. I’m not sure where you’re getting your cites from, but some of them are not true. Can you give any help here with cites? \*\* Well, checking quickly, the GPO: [http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/symbols/yankee.html](http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/symbols/yankee.html) except for the info on the term “macaroni”, and the lyrics for “Lucy Locket” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/9 "2003-06-18T03:32:56Z")
**Captain**. Thanks for replying. The info on that website is so bad that I"ve written them an email just now. Embarassing that it’s from the Government Printing Office. From the site > [@](#): > > The music and words go back to 15th century Holland, as a harvesting song that began, “Yanker dudel doodle down.” In England, the tune was used for a nursery rhyme – “Lucy Locket”. Later, the song poked fun of Puritan church leader Oliver Cromwell, because “Yankee” was a mispronunciation of the word “English” in the Dutch language, and “doodle” refers to a dumb person. But it was a British surgeon, Richard Schuckburgh, who wrote the words we know today that ridiculed the ragtag colonists fighting in the French and Indian War. So far, they’re batting .001 The tune was probably used for “Lucy Locket.” What a load of crap. ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-doodle-old-english-lyrics/182303/10 "2003-06-18T04:02:30Z")
**Dex** claims that the origins for “Doodle” are unknown, but it seems likely to me that it was used according to its definition at the time: that is, “doodle” referred to an idler or goldbrick. From this we get such gems as _flapdoodle_ (meaning “nonsense,” but literally, the “the stuff doodles feed on”) and _fopdoodle_ (meaning a trifling doodle).