英语词汇yankee的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

Yankee. The source of Yankee has long been disputed and its origin is still uncertain, despite all the research devoted to it. Candidates, among many, have included a slave named Yankee offered for sale in 1725, a Dutch sea captain named Yanky, the Yankos Indians, the Dutch name Janke (“Johnny”), which the Dutch applied to the English, and an Indian mispronunciation (Yengees) of the word English. The most popular explanation, also unproved, is that Yankee comes from Jan Kees, a contemp- tuous Flemish and German nickname for the Dutch that the English first applied to the Dutch in the New World. In any case, Yankee seems to have been first applied to Americans by British soldiers serving under General James Wolfe in the French and Indian War prior to 1758. A letter written by Wolfe himself in that year uses the word as a contemptuous nickname for Americans: “My posts are not so fortified that I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more as they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance . . . [they] are in general the dirtiest most contemptible cowardly dogs that you can conceive. There is no depending on them in action. They fall down dead in their own dirt and desert by bat- talions, officers and all. Such rascals as those are rather an en- cumberance than any real strength to an army.” Wolfe’s low opinion of the Americans and further contemptuous use of Yankee is seen in a 1775 chronicle, which is also notable as an early description of the practice of “mooning”: “They [British soldiers] abused the watch-men on duty, and the young chil- dren of Boston by the wayside, making mouths at them, calling them Yankeys, shewing their posteriors, and clapping their hands thereon.”

It wasn’t until the Battle of Lexington, the first battle of the Revolution in 1775, that Americans began applying the nickname Yankee to themselves and making it respectable. Soon after, the process of dignification began and the story about the Yankos Indians was invented. In this tale a mythical tribe of Massachusetts Indians are said to have been defeated by a band of valorous New Englanders, the defeated Yankos so admiring the bravery of their victorious adversaries that they gave them their name, Yankos, which meant “Invinci- bles” and was soon corrupted to Yankees! Yankee has been an admirable or contemptuous nickname for Americans ever since, depending by whom and in what context it is used. At any rate, Yankee described a New Englander by the middle 18th century and was used by the British to designate any American during the Revolution, the most notable example found in the derisive song Yankee Doodle. Nowadays the Brit- ish still use the word for an American, southerners use it for northerners (see damn yankee) and northerners use it for New Englanders, who, despite its early history, remain proud of the designation.

词汇	yankee
词源	Yankee. The source of Yankee has long been disputed and its origin is still uncertain, despite all the research devoted to it. Candidates, among many, have included a slave named Yankee offered for sale in 1725, a Dutch sea captain named Yanky, the Yankos Indians, the Dutch name Janke (“Johnny”), which the Dutch applied to the English, and an Indian mispronunciation (Yengees) of the word English. The most popular explanation, also unproved, is that Yankee comes from Jan Kees, a contemp- tuous Flemish and German nickname for the Dutch that the English first applied to the Dutch in the New World. In any case, Yankee seems to have been first applied to Americans by British soldiers serving under General James Wolfe in the French and Indian War prior to 1758. A letter written by Wolfe himself in that year uses the word as a contemptuous nickname for Americans: “My posts are not so fortified that I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more as they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance . . . [they] are in general the dirtiest most contemptible cowardly dogs that you can conceive. There is no depending on them in action. They fall down dead in their own dirt and desert by bat- talions, officers and all. Such rascals as those are rather an en- cumberance than any real strength to an army.” Wolfe’s low opinion of the Americans and further contemptuous use of Yankee is seen in a 1775 chronicle, which is also notable as an early description of the practice of “mooning”: “They [British soldiers] abused the watch-men on duty, and the young chil- dren of Boston by the wayside, making mouths at them, calling them Yankeys, shewing their posteriors, and clapping their hands thereon.” It wasn’t until the Battle of Lexington, the first battle of the Revolution in 1775, that Americans began applying the nickname Yankee to themselves and making it respectable. Soon after, the process of dignification began and the story about the Yankos Indians was invented. In this tale a mythical tribe of Massachusetts Indians are said to have been defeated by a band of valorous New Englanders, the defeated Yankos so admiring the bravery of their victorious adversaries that they gave them their name, Yankos, which meant “Invinci- bles” and was soon corrupted to Yankees! Yankee has been an admirable or contemptuous nickname for Americans ever since, depending by whom and in what context it is used. At any rate, Yankee described a New Englander by the middle 18th century and was used by the British to designate any American during the Revolution, the most notable example found in the derisive song Yankee Doodle. Nowadays the Brit- ish still use the word for an American, southerners use it for northerners (see damn yankee) and northerners use it for New Englanders, who, despite its early history, remain proud of the designation.
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