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. [ 1913 Webster ]

From meanness first this Portsmouth Yankey rose,
And still to meanness all his conduct flows. Oppression, A poem by an American (Boston, 1765). [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to a Yankee; characteristic of the Yankees. [ 1913 Webster ]

The alertness of the Yankee aspect. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

Yankee clover. (Bot.) See Japan clover, under Japan. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The name of a tune adopted popularly as one of the national airs of the United States. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Humorously, a Yankee. [ 1913 Webster ]

We might have withheld our political noodles
From knocking their heads against hot Yankee-Doodles. Moore. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A Yankee idiom, word, custom, or the like. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]