Yank

See also: yank and þank

English

Etymology

Shortened from Yankee.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /jæŋk/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -æŋk

Noun

Yank (plural Yanks)

(US) A Yankee, a Northerner: someone from the Northern United States, especially from New England.
- 1865, unnamed Confederate officer, according to Lieutenant Joseph E. Moody, U.S.V., “Life in Confederate Prisons”, in Civil War Papers, Volume II, Massachusetts Commandery (1900), page 368:
  Halt! come down there, you Yanks, come down!
- 1944, Howard Fast, Freedom Road, M.E. Sharpe (1995), →ISBN, page 33:
  “I do wish I might of found you in my sights when you was with them damn Yanks,” Abner added.
- 2004, O. K. Williams, The Way the Cards Fall, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 16:
  Corporal Bob explained, “The Yanks has tha best weapons. But us Rebs know how to shoot tha damn things. […] ”
(Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Britain, sometimes pejorative) An American: someone from the United States.
- 1951, “The Yanks Are Coming: U.S. shows world we are playing for keeps as 4th Division leaves to join Eisenhower's NATO army”, in Life, 11 June 1951, page 38:
  “This time,” he [General Alphonse-Pierre Juin] told the Yanks, “you have not crossed to win new victories but to preserve peace. […] ”

Synonyms

(inhabitant of the USA): American

Translations

native of the Northern USA

Finnish: jenkki (fi)

French: Yankee (fr) m or f

native of the USA

Finnish: jenkki (fi)
French: ricain (fr) m, ricaine (fr) f, ricains (fr) m pl, ricaines (fr) f pl, amerloque (fr) m or f, Yankee (fr) m or f
German: Ami (de) m, Yankee (de) m

Portuguese: ianque (pt)
Spanish: yanqui (es)
Swedish: jänkare (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Japanese: ヤンキー (yankī)