Yanks/Yankees

Posted by Lotg on July 01, 2004

Only seconds ago I posted something on the term 'sounding board'. In doing so I referred to my 'Yankee' friend. It occurred to me afterwards, that this might be entirely incorrect or even politically incorrect (perish the thought I would EVER be politically incorrect - mwahahah!!!!).

Anyway, I, from the lower planetory regions (on a higher planetory scale of course), tend to occasionally refer to all Americans as Yanks - in a totally casual, across the board without thought basis. But it occurred to me that a country that has as part of its history 'civil war' might not necessarily take kindly to that ('take kindly' has to be an Americanism).

The point I'm making is, when I say 'Yank' it's with as much feeling and venom as 'Pom' - ie. NONE! It's all just a term of endearment to me - ie. slang.

So if I offend I apologise - it's down to my parochial ignorance.

But there's a question here too - in doing so, do I offend? ie. Is calling American 'Yanks' offensive to some Americans? And is there a difference between me calling you 'yanks' and 'yankees'? I'm not kidding, I really don't know. Your TV programs don't enlighten on these points.

  • Yanks/Yankees YDD 01/July/04
    • Yanks/Yankees Fran Oppenheimer 03/July/04
  • Yanks/Yankees ESC 01/July/04
    • Yanks/Yankees ESC 01/July/04
      • Yanks/Yankees Word Camel 01/July/04
        • Yanks/Yankees dhm 01/July/04
          • Affectionate nickname Ward 01/July/04
            • Affectionate nickname dhm 01/July/04
              • Affectionate nickname platypus 01/July/04
                • Affectionate nickname dhm 01/July/04
                  • Affectionate nickname Ward 01/July/04
                    • Affectionate nickname Brian from Shawnee 02/July/04
                      • MichaelFR where are you? Lotg 02/July/04
                        • MichaelFR where are you? dhm 02/July/04
                          • Maybe we should make more effort to think Lotg 02/July/04
                            • Maybe we should make more effort to think MichaelFR 02/July/04
                            • Maybe we should make more effort to think MichaelFR 02/July/04