Colloquial Terms
"Yankee" (or "Yank") is a colloquial term for Americans in English; cognates can be found in other languages. Within the United States, "Yankee" usually refers to people specifically from New England or the Northern United States, though it has been applied to Americans generally since the 18th century, especially by the British. The earliest recorded use in this context is in a 1784 letter by Horatio Nelson. The word "gringo", often used derogatively, is common in Latin American Spanish and has entered into other languages including English, in which language it is recorded as early as 1871.
Read more about this topic: Names For United States Citizens
Famous quotes containing the words colloquial and/or terms:
“Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)
“It is not [the toddler’s] job yet to consider other people’s feelings, he has to come to terms with his own first. If he hits you and you hit him back to “show him what it feels like,” you will have given a lesson he is not ready to learn. He will wail as if hitting was a totally new idea to him. He makes no connections between what he did to you and what you then did to him; between your feelings and his own.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)