| 释义 |
Yankee, n. and a.|ˈjæŋkɪ|
Also 8–9 Yankey, Yanky, pl. Yankies.
[Source unascertained.
The two earliest statements as to its origin were published in 1789: Thomas Anburey, a British officer who served under Burgoyne in the War of Independence, in his Travels II. 50 derives Yankee from Cherokee eankke slave, coward, which he says was applied to the inhabitants of New England by the Virginians for not assisiting them in a war with the Cherokees; William Gordon in Hist. Amer. War states that it was a favourite word with farmer Jonathan Hastings of Cambridge, Mass., c 1713, who used it in the sense of ‘excellent’. Appearing next in order of date (1822) is the statement which has been most widely accepted, viz. that the word has been evolved from North American Indian corruptions of the word English through Yengees to Yankees (Heckewelder, Indian Nations iii. ed. 1876, p. 77); cf. Yengees.
Perhaps the most plausible conjecture is that it comes from Du. Janke, dim. of Jan John, applied as a derisive nickname by either Dutch or English in the New England states (J. N. A. Thierry, 1838, in Life of Ticknor, 1876, II. vii. 124). The existence of Yank(e)y, Yankee, as a surname or nickname (often with Dutch associations) is vouched for by the following references:
1683Cal. St. Papers, Colon. Ser. (1898) 457 They [sc. pirates] sailed from Bonaco..; chief commanders, Vanhorn, Laurens, and Yankey Duch. 1684Ibid. 733 A sloop..unlawfully seized by Captain Yankey. 1687Ibid. (1899) 456 Captains John Williams (Yankey) and Jacob Everson (Jacob). 1687–8MSS. Earl of Dartmouth in 11th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 136 The pirates Yanky and Jacobs. 1697Dampier Voy. I. iii. 38. 1725 Inventory of W. Marr of Carolina in N. & Q. 5th Ser. X. 467 Item one negroe man named Yankee to be sold.
Cf. also ‘Dutch yanky’ s.v. yanky.]
A. n.
1. a. U.S. A nickname for a native or inhabitant of New England, or, more widely, of the northern States generally; during the War of Secession applied by the Confederates to the soldiers of the Federal army.
1765Oppression, a Poem by an American (with notes by a North Briton) 17 From meanness first this Portsmouth Yankey rose. Note, ‘Portsmouth Yankey’, It seems, our hero being a New-Englander by birth, has a right to the epithet of Yankey; a name of derision, I have been informed, given by the Southern people on the Continent, to those of New-England: what meaning there is in the word, I never could learn. 1775J. Trumbull McFingal i. 1 When Yankies, skill'd in martial rule, First put the British troops to school. Editor's note, Yankies—a term formerly of derision, but now merely of distinction, given to the people of the four eastern States. 1775Penna Gazette 10 May in N. & Q. 1st Ser. VI. 57/1 They [sc. the British troops] were roughly handled by the Yankees, a term of reproach for the New Englanders, when applied by the regulars. 1778Muse's Mirrour I. 220 O My Yankee, my Yankee, And O my Yankee, my sweet-ee, And was its nurse North asham'd Because such a bantling hath beat-ee? 1817M. Birkbeck Notes Journ. Amer. (1818) 19 The enterprising people [at Richmond, Virginia] are mostly strangers; Scotch, Irish, and especially New England men, or Yankees, as they are called. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan i. I. 13 He was a Yankee, the very character of whom is, that he can ‘turn his hand’, as he says, ‘to any thing’. 1891Duncan Amer. Girl in London 23 The Yankees are the New Englanders,..the name would once have been taken as an insult by a Southerner.
b. By English writers and speakers commonly applied to a native or inhabitant of the United States generally; an American.
Applied occas. to a ship (cf. Frenchman, etc.).
c1784Nelson Let. to Locker in A. Duncan Life (1806) 321, I..am determined not to suffer the Yankies to come where the ship is. 1796T. Twining Trav. Amer. (1894) 68 Their wit was particularly directed against a ‘Yankee’ who was one of the company. We apply this designation as a term of ridicule or reproach to the inhabitants of all parts of the United States indiscriminately; but the Americans confine its application to their countrymen of the Northern or New England States. 1798C. Smith Yng. Philos. III. 11 If thou marriedst the heiress, thou must give up thy little American, thy fascinating yankey. 1836Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. ix, I'll be d―d, said he, if ever I saw a Yankee that didn't bolt his food whole like a Boa Constrictor. 1851Blackw. Mag. LXIX. 409/2 When we next saw the Yankee [sc. a frigate], there we were coming right down upon him over the breast of the sea. 1887‘Edna Lyall’ Knight-Errant xvii, I really am Italian, though Signor Sardoni will call me a little Yankee.
2. [ellipt. use of the adj.] The Yankee language, the dialect of New England; loosely, American English generally.
1824J. Gilchrist Etymol. Interpr. 8 The naked savages of Indiana already speak a corrupt English (or Yankee). 1836Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. i, You did not come form Halifax, I presume, sir, did you? in a dialect too rich to be mistaken as genuine Yankee. 1840― Letter Bag iii. 34 Coarse jokes in English, German, French, and Yankee.
3. Whisky sweetened with molasses. local U.S. colloq.
1804Fessenden Orig. Poems 97 Call on me when you come this way, And take a dram of Yankee.
4. pl. Stock Exchange slang. American stocks or securities.
1887Pall Mall Gaz. 6 Sept. 12/1 There was great excitement in the American market yesterday, and the bulls are cherishing the hope that there is to be a sustained boom in ‘Yankees’. 1908Daily Chron. 13 Mar. 1/7 Yankees finished higher on the lead from Wall Street.
5. A name for various special tools of American origin, or of ingenious design. (Cf. Yankee notions in C.)
1909Cent. Dict. Supp.
6. = Yankee jib in sense C. b. below.
1912Heckstall-Smith & Du Boulay Compl. Yachtsman vi. 152 The ‘Yankee’ is a strong pulling sail. 1953Yachting June 48 We handed the yankee in favor of the working jib and forestops'l. 1967J. Anderson Vinland Voyage 211 Peter decided to use the No. 2 yankee, leaving the big No. 1 to its proper job of pulling forward. 1974Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 11 Aug. 11/1 We were lost without the mizzen. With motor and yankee we inched our way..forward.
7. Horse-racing. A composite bet on four or more horses, composed of doubles, trebles, and one or more accumulators.
1967C. Cockburn I, Claud xxxiii. 404, I stepped into the betting-shop and placed the type of bet known as a ‘Yankee’ on four of the races... I was able to collect..over {pstlg}72 for the twenty-two shillings I had bet. 1970Guardian 17 Apr. 12/3, I have..won in 4-, 5- and 6-horse yankees sums of up to {pstlg}200. 1981B. Hines Looks & Smiles 184, I won it on the horses. Me and Phil had a Yankee up.
B. adj.
a. That is a Yankee; pertaining to or characteristic of Yankees (often with the connotation of cleverness, cunning, or cold calculation); loosely, belonging to the United States, American.
1781A. Bell in Southey Life (1844) I. 37 The whole coast infested with Yanky privateers. 1784A. Adams Lett. (1848) 161 We have curtains, it is true, and we only in part undress, about as much as the Yankee bundlers. 1822Cobbett Weekly Reg. 9 Mar. 633, I was on board a little Yankee sloop in the Bay of Funday. 1828(title) The Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette. 1829Marryat Frank Mildmay xx, I will show you a Yankee trick. 1886Froude Oceana 357 California with its gold and its cornfields,..its ‘heathen Chinese’ and its Yankee millionaires, was a land of romance.
b. Used of or in reference to the language or dialect: cf. A. 2.
a1854Whittier Charms & Fairy Faith Pr. Wks. 1880 II. 239 A sort of Yankee-Irish dialect. 1866Lowell Biglow P. Introd., Wks. 1890 II. 170 Of Yankee preterites I find risse and rize for rose in Beaumont and Fletcher, Middleton and Dryden.
C. Comb., etc.
a. gen., as Yankee-like, Yankee-looking adjs.
1799Aurora (Phila.) 30 Sept. (Thornton Amer. Gloss.) Faith, 'twill be Yankee like, and plagued funny. 1836Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xvii, I heard him ax the groom who that are Yankee lookin feller was.
b. Special combinations and collocations. Yankee bet Horse-racing = sense A. 7 above; Yankee gang, name in Canada for a special arrangement of gang-saws (see quot.); Yankee jib (topsail), a large jib topsail used in light winds, set on the topmast stay; Yankee-land, the land of Yankees, New England; loosely, the United States; Yankee notions [notion 9 b], small wares or useful articles made in New England or the northern States; Yankee State, a nickname for Ohio.
1964A. Wykes Gambling viii. 194 (caption) The ‘*Yankee bet’ (a permutation bet covering four horses) that can be made with off-course bookmakers in Britain. 1976Daily Record (Glasgow) 29 Nov. 23/5 Yankee bet: Six doubles, four trebles and an accumulator—Pikey (12.0 Windsor), Escapologist (1.45 Wolverhampton), Corrieghoil (2.15 Wolverhampton), Heidelberg (3.0 Windsor).
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Yankee Gang, an arrangement in a saw-mill (Canada)... It consists of two sets of gang-saws, having parallel ways... One is the slabbing-gang, and reduces the log to a balk and slab-boards. The balk is then shifted to the stock-gang, which rips it into lumber.
[1904B. Heckstall-Smith Dixon Kemp's Man. of Yacht & Boat Sailing (ed. 10) v. 94 The sheeting of a modern large jackyard topsail requires a master hand's attention, especially when it is fitted ‘Yankee fashion’, having three sheets, as very many now are—namely, the main topsail sheet, the outer and inner sheets on the ends of the jackyard.] 1912Heckstall-Smith & Du Boulay Compl. Yachtsman vi. 152 A useful sail is the *Yankee jib-topsail. This is the largest or balloon jib-topsail, and the modern and most efficient form of balloon jib-topsail is cut, like all modern head-sails should be, very high in the clew. 1928Daily Mail 9 Aug. 19/6 There is a Yankee jib which, as one sail, covers more than the combined area of jib and foresail. 1939U. Fox Crest of Wave 145 We had settled down with the large Yankee jib topsail set in the place of the double clewed jib. 1976Yachts & Yachting 20 Aug. 339/3 At 30 knots across the deck she dropped her yankee jib and kept going under staysail and heavily reefed main.
1803in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. VI. 350 More wit from *Yankee-land. 1837Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. 13 July (1883) 57 It sounds strangely to hear children bargaining in French on the borders of Yankee-land.
1819Mass. Spy 8 Sept. (Thornton), I come here to retail My *Yankee notions,—cheese, wit, verse, codfishes, Cider, et cetera. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan xxii. II. 298 The tallow, corn, cotton, hams, hides, and so forths, which we had got, in exchange for a load of Yankee notions. 1889Century Mag. May 82/1, I saw the American tin-ware, lanterns, and ‘Yankee notions’.
1884Harper's Mag. June 125/1 Ohio was called ‘the *Yankee State’.
Hence ˈYankee v. (rare—1), trans. to deal cunningly with like a Yankee, to cheat; ˈYankeedom, the realm or country of Yankees, the United States of America; Yankees as a body; ˈYankeyess, a depreciatory term for an American woman; ˈYankeefied |-faɪd| ppl. a., made or become like a Yankee; characteristic of a Yankee; ˈYankeeish a., resembling a Yankee (whence ˈYankeeishly adv., like a Yankee); ˈYankeeism, Yankee character or style; a Yankee characteristic or idiom; ˈYankeeize v., trans. to make Yankeeish, give a Yankee character to; ˈYankeeness, Yankee character.
1837Fraser's Mag. XVI. 683 [They] are considered capable of ‘*Yankeeing’ the more simple-minded Canadians.
1851Blackw. Mag. Apr. 417/1 He ought to take steamer direct for *Yankeedom;..they'd make him President at once! 1890R. Broughton Alas! i. viii, Yankeedom and Cockneydom, rushing hand in hand through all earth's sacredness.
1852Q. Rev. Mar. 297 The *Yankeyesses who urge the convenience of a manly garb.
1846Jas. Taylor Upper Canada 47 Some of the Canadians indulge in the *Yankeefied habit of bolting down their victuals. 1897Voice (N.Y.) 14 Jan. 8 Japan is getting Yankeefied in more ways than one.
1818H. C. Robinson Diary 30 Apr. (1967) 58 Allston has a mild manner, a soft voice, and a sentimental air with him, not at all *Yankyish. 1830Collegian (Cambridge, Mass.) Apr. 117 Comparisons are generally ‘odorous’, particularly Yankeeish, and decidedly condemned by Captain Basil Hall.
1855De Quincey in ‘H. A. Page’ Life (1877) II. xviii. 112 Waal, now, to speak *yankeeishly, I calculate your dander is rising.
1820Eclectic Rev. Apr. 359 The term unwell, when first brought up, was ridiculed as a *Yankee-ism. 1836Fraser's Mag. XIII. 653 Guilty of all those Yankeeisms which distinguish the lout from the gentleman. 1865Visct. Milton & W. B. Cheadle N.-W. Pass. by Land ii. (1867) 18 Irish or German Yankees;..out-Heroding Herod in Yankeeism.
1864Guardian 20 Apr. 386 We begin to fear that England is becoming *Yankeeised. 1877Sir F. Elliot in Dowden Corr. Sir H. Taylor 377 The most certain of political tendencies in England is what..I will call the Yankeeising tendency. 1882H. E. Scudder Noah Webster viii. 289 Hawthorne, Yankeeizing the Greek myths, and finding all Rome but the background for his Puritan maiden, was asserting that new discovery of Europe by America.
1909‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny xxi. 352 Any *Yankeeness I may have is geographical. |