Most people have no idea the origin of the word “Yankee”.
I was taught, as my ancestors fought in the French and Indian war (against the Brits), that the word derives from the Huron Indians attempting to pronounce the French word for the English “ l’anglais” (meaning the English) which when spoken by the Hurons sounded as “Y’an-gees”. Linguists don’t really have a clue— I believe my family sources, as the common language for much of the non-colonials of that day was French. In any case it means “British” which means a failed system of taxing bastards. Still does in modern context.
That is a great piece of information. I was always under the impression that the word came from Asia somewhere in the 18th or early 19th century and it had a meaning like “White Devil” or something like that. Funny, never gave it much thought.
But when I got in the USN, and began to associate with guys from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, I found out that the Civil War was far from being a dead subject.