Is "yankee" an acceptable word in conversations?

[zex]

I've been meaning to ask this question for some time, now I remembered, so here we go

As everyone knows, I don't like the term American, because it means "from America", which is a continent....that's not the point arguing here. Point is, I find that, outside "american", there's no good demonym for people/things/places born/made/located in the US.

In spanish there's a richer vocabulary, because we have:

-Americano (american), never used for the reason I've stated before
-Norteamericano ("north-american"), a bit more common, and we don't care about Canada
-Estadounidense ("unitedstater"), the most usual, but with no equivalent in english

And, at last, the topic here, the word "yanqui", that is, the spanish translation of "yankee"

Well, here the word "yanqui" is inequivocally meant to refer to something from the US, and it's not despective, it's a common demonym that everyone (except maybe on a formal language) would use. But I don't know wheter it's acceptable to say "yankee" to anyone, so I want clarification about that. After all, we call "gallegos" (galicians) to all Spaniards, so you can't trust us?

So, in the end, is it acceptable to say, "a yankee game", "a yankee person"?

Thanks for the responses

[Mako]

When I hear Yankee I think of the New York Yankees.

So NO!

[zex]

Is that good or bad? I'm guessing it's a sport team...when I hear "argentino" I don't think of Argentinos Juniors...

[Mako]

Well yeah, but I'm guessing everyone thinks of the team now.... No one thinks Yankee is an insult or anything. So if you want to call us that go ahead. But you'll be talking about the team.

[Luinil]

Some southerners wouldn't want to be called Yankees. That is a term for people from the New England area (North Eastern USA). If you call a southerner a yankee he could get offended if you knew better. That is because it harkens back to the Civil War, North/Yankees vs. South/Confederates.

I don't personally take any offense, but I am certainly not used to being called that. You might take a page from Australians, they call us "crazy yanks" lol

[loro]

Sorry to say it....but whether we're butchering the proper usage of the word or not...the proper term in english would be American.

You can continue to use whatever descriptors you will in your own language....but you will find (probably the world over) that people from the US are called Americans.

Trust me...I know the difference and I know that America refers to the entire continent...but semantically that doesn't figure into the language here.

[Don Ramón]

What about the term Gringo?

[B4L]

Sure all the northern folks are Yankees to us southerners ...

[Flow]

What about the term Gringo?

I think foreigners do find it ofensive, though it's not an offensive word in my country (and on latin america as a whole, i guess)

[zex]

What about the term Gringo?

Gringo for an argentinian means "from northern Europe", that is, English/German/Scandinavian. It's generally used to refer to somebody blonde

[loro]

Gringo is certainly offensive here.

[MesoZombie]

i have no problem with the word, but then again i am a yank

[Don Ramón]

Gringo is certainly offensive here.

and thats the word we use the most in Central America

[Flow]

Gringo is certainly offensive here.

and thats the word we use the most in Central America

And without any intentions to offend

Though i'm trying not to say it so i won't accidentaly say it when speaking to a foreigner

[Don Ramón]

Agree with the nice cat avatar guy, also sometimes even Americans call themselves gringos here....

[Kestrel]

With respect to the populace in far north america and south america, it is pretty much universal to say american (of america) and not mean from south america or canada. When you put south on there you know that you are not talking about the USA or canada, and when you say north you are more than likely talking about the geographic location, with little regard to political/national boundaries. A Canadian family that visited once brought this to my attention; that they also lived in america. While with europeans you can say that someone is French or Spanish/ Spaniard, Pole/ Polish in addition to calling them a european, you have other areas that are not specifically identified by the nation state itself. UAE for example is a combination of states/peoples. They take on a name “Emirati” which is only a fraction of their populace and derives (as far as I can tell) from their word emirates (states). Their main composition is Arab, which stems from their language Arabic more than from a location.

The USA’s language is primarily english, and that is taken by people from england as far as an identifier. We could take a cue from the UAE and call ourselves “Staters” or of the states, or whatever that exactly means, but the last part of our name america, is perhaps the most identifiable after the language option: we are all in america, we can’t be english, and we seem to have opted out of the states route. We do not have the option of saying Unitedstatesian, Unitedstateish, Unitedstatesi the way others can say Canadian, Polish, Israeli. Well, I guess we have the option, but someone found it wanting I guess.

Yankee :p. Is indeed something that we call people from the original northeastern colonies, or more generally just north. Often this descriptor comes with a view of an accent: if you had a strong one and you came down south you would in the past more likely be called that. I do not think that people make as much of a deal out of it as at one time; people move around so much and all, but to someone living in the south being Yankee would mean that they were born and raised some few hundred miles north, which if you are happy about where you were from you might be quick to correct.

Gringo. I have seen this and nigger used in positive and negative situations, it is like anything else that can go both ways; among friends you can call them what you will and it is fine. I personally do not mind, but it is kinda like saying Yankee: it puts to the receiver of the conversation’s notice that there is a cultural difference, which unless you are in the middle of appreciating that difference could be taken as being somewhat rude.

[Kenzomatic]

You could always denote what state they where from. England is set up a bit different but I always denote British, Scottish, Irish, even though it is one country. That said the cultural difference do not range as different in the states, or state side.

[El Duderino]

Its all context... "Do you know how the yankees played ?" is ok... aswell as "I couldn´t get the melody of Yankee Doodle out of my head all day"... hover " Those dirty yankees raped our horses and rode off on the women." is commonly frowend uppon... I guess it sometimes also has a little bit of an N-word characteristic in the sense that yanks calling each other yanks is ok while non-yanks using it is received as insulting...

[c03n3nj0]

I hate the yankees!

But no, I don't think it's offensive at all. And for me, Gringo isn't really offensive either, we used it all the time in Nicaragua.

[fkusumot]

And as an adjunct to what the Duderino said: Most of it makes a difference as to what context you use it in and in what company you use it in.

Singing "Yanklee Doodle Dandee" in Boston is part of the warmup to singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and eventually "The National Anthem. Singing any of those songs in a bar (let's just say a bar full of middle-aged to elderly white gentlemen, in a bar that has an American flag decal on the front door) in South Carolina or Alabama is asking for trouble unless you in a VFW.

Anyways, to answer your question obliquely, what do you think the opposite of "Yankee" is? And if you can think of the word, is that a pejorative word?

[zex]

Anyways, to answer your question obliquely, what do you think the opposite of "Yankee" is? And if you can think of the word, is that a pejorative word?

The opposite of Yankee, in my case, would be "non-yankee", or "not born in the US"...i mean, how do you design someone that's NOT from some place...?

I don't know if that would be pejorative...

[fkusumot]

Anyways, to answer your question obliquely, what do you think the opposite of "Yankee" is? And if you can think of the word, is that a pejorative word?

The opposite of Yankee, in my case, would be "non-yankee", or "not born in the US"...i mean, how do you design someone that's NOT from some place...?

I don't know if that would be pejorative...

The opposite of Yankee (while being using in a pejorative term), would be Cracker.

There's no doubt that Yankee can be used negatively, and quite negatively at that (usually in conjunction with words; like myself when I was young was called a Yankee Sand Nigger, or, a Yankee Rice Man (4th/5th grade imagination is apparently not great in those young crackers).

Just throwing things out there and seeing if they'll land in the pot. I'll get to stirring it later.

[zex]

You're puzzling me. The only meaning of cracker I know is the snack. I don't know what you're talking about

[El Duderino]

I only know it as an opposite to Nigger... kinda like hoonkey... don´t know how it could be related to Yankee...

Its also a snack and a pretty sweet band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK9z70MFEwk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoXlOAeblxw

[fkusumot]

You dudes aren't American? Or you're just not from the south? Wiki says:

Cracker (pejorative)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cracker, sometimes white cracker, is a pejorative term and common ethnic slur against white people, mainly used in the Southern United States, but in recent decades it has entered common usage throughout North America and in some areas of British society

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