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⚾ Baseball team 🇺🇸 Americans (informal) 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Northern Americans
Yankees

Yankees

3.7
People from the northern United States who supported the Union during the Civil War
  • noun
  • /ˈjæŋkiːz/
translation icon : yanqui
  • During the Civil War, many Northern Yankees fought bravely to preserve the Union.

Louisiana was occupied by the US Army, New Orleans was crowded with black freed people and Yankees and thieves ran everything.

Examples

  • Louisiana was occupied by the US Army, New Orleans was crowded with black freed people and Yankees and thieves ran everything.

    Harvard University

  • If you can understand why those Northern Yankees get to that point, you really will understand the Civil War.

  • I tell you, Yankees and Yankee notions are just what we want in this country now.

  • You see the VMN's Ridgeway go home, Yankees go home, and so on.

  • My grandfather often shared stories about the Yankees he knew from his youth in New York.

  • The term Yankees is commonly associated with those who opposed slavery in the 1860s.

Synonyms

Yank
vsYankees
  • Archaic
1 8.8

A person from the northern United States, especially during the Civil War

is focused on those who supported the Union rather than just origin
Yankee
vsYankees
  • US
1 5.8

A person from the northern United States, often from New England

includes political support for the Union rather than mainly regional identity

Surface Forms

Yankees plural
Yankee singular

Morphology

Yankees = Yankee (transparent) = Yankee + s

The plural is formed by the regular -s; the morphological relation is clear even if the historical/habitual sense is somewhat specialized.

Etymology

Yankees came to mean people from the northern United States in the 1800s, especially those who fought for the Union in the Civil War. This use grew from the same old nickname, Dutch Janke meaning 'little John', which is why Yankees can mean northerners or Union soldiers.