Yankee word meaning and definition

[noun] an American
[noun] an American who lives in New England
[noun] an American who lives in the North (especially during the American Civil War)
[adjective] used by southerners for an inhabitant of a northern state in the United States (especially a Union soldier)

\Yan"kee\, n. [Commonly considered to be a corrupt pronunciation of the word English, or of the French word Anglais, by the native Indians of America. According to Thierry, a corruption of Jankin, a diminutive of John, and a nickname given to the English colonists of Connecticut by the Dutch settlers of New York. Dr. W. Gordon (``Hist. of the Amer. War,'' ed, 1789, vol. i., pp. 324, 325) says it was a favorite cant word in Cambridge, Mass., as early as 1713, and that it meant excellent; as, a yankee good horse, yankee good cider, etc. Cf. Scot yankie a sharp, clever, and rather bold woman, and Prov. E. bow-yankees a kind of leggins worn by agricultural laborers.] A nickname for a native or citizen of New England, especially one descended from old New England stock; by extension, an inhabitant of the Northern States as distinguished from a Southerner; also, applied sometimes by foreigners to any inhabitant of the United States. From meanness first this Portsmouth Yankey rose, And still to meanness all his conduct flows. --Oppression, A poem by an American (Boston, 1765).
\Yan"kee\, a. Of or pertaining to a Yankee; characteristic of the Yankees. The alertness of the Yankee aspect. --Hawthorne. {Yankee clover}. (Bot.) See {Japan clover}, under {Japan}.

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