Dex didn’t mention that the term Yankee was originally an ethnic slur directed against the Dutch descendants of New Amsterdam. Apparently many of the Dutch were named Jan Kees,
Jan being pronounced yan. Jan is the Dutch form of John. Obviously, the English colonists ,never mind the Dutch, at large would be quite incensed by constantly being slurred in song by the British.
Today in South Africa, the Dutch descendants are referred to as Yannies by the English descendants.
I don’t know how true it is but the term “dutch” was originally used as a slur against the northern residents of the low countries on the Rhine delta. These people did not like to be referred to as german or deutche,but ever since the humiliation of the English Navy by the Dutch Admiral deRuyter boldly entering the Thames estuary and capturing the flagship the Royal Charles in the 17th century, the English had no love for the Netherlanders.
Just a reminder how ethnic slurs have entered the lexicon and losing the origin of the intent of their meaning.
Here’s a Monty Python angle. John Cleese’s family name
was changed from Cheese to Cleese before his birth.
Thus his name could have been “John Cheese”.
As far as I know the word Doodle also comes from the Dutch, originally Doedel, almost always used as Jan Doedel, which is an oldfashioned expression for a lazy person.
I have a book about this subject, called (By heart) “An American tune” When I get home again I’ll look up the author. it’s about the origins of the term, but also about the wa with the French at the time, very intersting reading.