The meaning of the term _Yankee_, which our transatlantic brethren now
willingly adopt as their collective name, has acquired more notoriety than
it deserved from the unlucky and far-fetched derivations which it has
received in so many different publications. The term is of Anglo-Saxon
origin, and of home-growth. We all know, from the veritable Diedricht
Knickerbocker's _History of New York_, that its earliest settlers were
exclusively Dutchmen, who naturally named it, though from anything but
similarity in local situation, New Amsterdam. We may, of course, suppose
that in the multitude of these Dutch settlers the names they carried over
would be pretty nearly in the same proportion as at home. Both then and now
the Dutch _Jan_ (the _a_ sounded very broad and long), abbreviated from the
German _Johann_, our _John_, was the prevailing Christian appellative; and
it even furnished, in _Jansen_, &c. (like our _Johnson_), frequent
patronymics, particularly with the favourite diminutive _cke_, _Jancke_:
and so common does it still remain as such, that it would be difficult to
open the Directory of any decent-sized Dutch or Northern German town
without finding numerous instances, as _Jancke_, _Jaancke_, _Jahncke_, &c.,
according as custom has settled the orthography in each family. It is
scarcely necessary to say that the soft _J_ is frequently rendered by _Y_
in our English reading and speaking foreign words (as the Scandinavian and
German _Jule_ becomes our _Yule_), to show how easily and naturally the
above names were transformed into _Yahnkee_. So much for the name as an
appellative; now for its appropriation as a generic. The prominent names of
individuals are frequently seized upon by the vulgar as a designation of
the people or party in which it most prevails. We have _Paddies_ for
Irishmen, _Taffies_ for Welshmen, and _Sawnies_ (abbreviated _Alexander_)
for our Scotch brethren: so, therefore, when English interests gained the
upper hand, and the name of _New Amsterdam_ succumbed to that of _New
York_, the fresh comers, the English settlers, seized upon the most
prominent name by which to designate its former masters, which extended to
the whole of North America, as far as Canada: and the addition of _doodle_,
twin brother to _noodle_, was intended to mark more strongly the contempt
and mockery by the dominant party; just as a _Sawney_ is, in most of the
northern counties, a term next door to a fool. It is, however, to the
credit of our transatlantic brethren, and the best sign of their practical
good sense, that they have turned the tables on the innuendo, and by
adopting, carried the term into repute by sheer resolution and determinate
perseverance.
The term _slave_ is only the misappropriation, by malevolent neighbours, of
the Slavonic term _slaus_ or _laus_, so frequent in the proper names of
that people; _Ladislaus_, _Stanislaus_, _Wratislaus_, &c., meaning, in
their vernacular tongue, glory or praise, like the Latin _laus_, with which
it is no doubt cognate: and so _servi_ and _servants_ is but a derivative
from the _Serbs_, _Sorbs_, or _Servians_, whose glorious feats in arms
against their Turkish oppressors have proved that there is nothing
_servile_ in their character.
WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.