[Ads-l] "Yankee" as Adjective

Thu Aug 6 00:12:30 UTC 2026

Simple brainstorm. 'Tweren't nothin'.

JL

On Wed, Aug 5, 2026 at 6:51 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Extraordinary find (Yankee as adjective), Jon !  One of the best
> antedatings of recent times.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2026 4:54 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Yankee
>
> Might be worth reposting, from October, 2005:
>
> Three tidbits concerning the mysterious etymology of "Yankee," which I
> encourage others to follow up on :
>
> 1. Evidently there was a pirate called "Captain Yankey" who sailed the seas
> in the late 17th C.
>
> 2. Some years ago I met a young fellow on campus named "Dennis Yankee."
> Naturally, he had not the slightest idea of where the name came from.
>
> 3. The Algonquian conversations subtitled in the 1993 film of _The Last of
> the Mohicans_ employ the word / 'yEngiz / (spelled "Yengees" elsewhere) to
> refer to the English.  Whatever the case in the 18th C.,  the modern-day
> film consultant on Algonquian evidently felt this word was genuine and
> appropriate.  (I believe that doubt has been expressed as to whether
> "Yengees" was a real word.)
>
> JL
>
> UPDATES:
>
> The Kingsport [Tenn.] Times-News (Dec. 17, 1983), p.10B [N] has a story on
> my former acquaintance Dennis Yankee. (Didn't know he'd been a football
> hero.)   Ancestry.com reports that the surname "Yankee" (variously spelled)
> is an "Americanized form of Dutch or North German Janke Jahnke or Jenke."
> The assertion is not a surprise, but the genealogical source may be more
> than ordinarily reliable.
>
> OED's first ex. of "Yankee," adj., is from 1781.  This is earlier:
>
> 1769 _Bath and Bristol Chronicle_ (Feb. 16) 3 [N]: There is not an
> officer...who cannot have his bedfellow for the winter; so that the Yankey
> war, contrary to all others, will produce more births than burials.
>
> OED now has a separate entry for "Yengees" (sic., pl.) with two cites so
> early as 1819. But whether it is the etymon or a reflex of "Yankee" still
> appears to be unknown.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 5, 2026 at 3:39 PM victor steinbok <
> 000025123e35b025-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > As has become customary in my searches I was looking for something else,
> > got sidetracked and stumbled on "Yankee". A quick OED check had a 1697
> > pointer to Dampier's New Voyage Around The World. The OED citation is
> from
> > page 38. The margin note identifies the timeline as 1681.
> >
> > Looking over the rest of the citations in OED etymology for Yankee, all
> the
> > ones preceding Dampier's identify either "Captain Yanky" (with variant
> > spellings) or "Pirate Yanky". One reference, which I have not checked
> > identifies "Captain John Williams (Yankey)".
> >
> > So all the references appear to be to the same person, with Dampier's
> > dating being the earliest (although published later). There are three
> > factors that appear important to me.
> >
> > First, the odd reference to "John Williams (Yankey)" (1687, published
> > 1899). There can be no doubt it's the same person, despite the Anglicized
> > name. The second name that appears in the same citation is Captain Jacob
> > Everson (Jacob). The subsequent citation in an English document refers to
> > "the pirates Yanky and Jacobs" - again, undoubtedly the same two people.
> >
> > Second, the earliest available reference (1683 via 1898 publication)
> > identifies pirates "Vanhorn and ... Yankey Duch". Instead of speculating,
> > I'm just going to posit that this means "Yankee the Dutchman", supporting
> > the part of the etymology note that ties "Yankee" to Dutch "Janke". More
> on
> > that in a moment.
> >
> > Third, page 38 is not the earliest that Captain Yanky appears in
> Dampier's
> > account. Rather than look in the English 1697 (or subsequent) edition, I
> > took a peek at the 1698 French edition. The name appears much earlier in
> > that text - the accounting of man power and artillery of the ships
> sailing
> > out (p. 33). Going back to the English edition (p. 26 in Internet
> Archives
> > version; p. 29 in one Google Books version), the same account appears as
> > follows:
> >
> > "Capt. Williams, a small Barcolongo ) Capt. Yankes, a Barco-longo 4 Guns
> > about 6o or so Men, English, Dutch, and French; himself a Dutchman."
> >
> > Captain Williams is only mentioned once, subsequently, but there are also
> > several mentions of Captain Tristian, who is not listed in this account
> of
> > the privateer fleet. Subsequent text also reveals that "Captain Yanky" is
> > not commissioned as a privateer, so is, technically, a pirate.
> >
> > So, here's the issue. If Yankey/Yanky is indeed the nickname of Captain
> > John Williams and he is indeed Dutch, his original Dutch name may well be
> > Janke (presumably, a familiar/diminutive of Ian/John). Dampier also
> conveys
> > further that Captain Yankey was not only liked and supported by his crew
> > but by crew on other ships in the fleet as well, to the point of
> opposition
> > to the commissioned Captain Wright.
> >
> > The OED etymology note reads:
> >
> > "The existence of Yank(e)y, Yankee, as a surname or nickname (often with
> > Dutch associations) is vouched for by the following references:"
> >
> > There are two problems with this, as I see it. First, all the references
> > refer to the same person, a privateer or a pirate captain, so this is not
> > really multiple confirmations of such a surname. Second, it's not
> actually
> > a surname but, rather, an endearing shortening of the first name. There's
> > also the additional evidence of multiple spellings of the name - Yankey,
> > Yanky, Yanks and Yanke (not to mention, Janke) - that makes the search
> > somewhat complicated. But, it would go a long way in confirming the Dutch
> > origin of the Yankee epithet and possibly even linking it to the
> > aforementioned captain.
> >
> > Following up on this reasearch is out of my league. I have neither the
> > skill nor the resources. But, if this Captain John Yanky Williams can be
> > traced, it may just be the lead to unravel the whole mystery.
> >
> > VS-)
> >
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