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)
“The intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)