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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2513 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 10, 2025

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I just realized that the closer you get to New England, the more specific a background "Yankee" denotes. Overseas, it means an American. In the US it means someone from the Northeast. In the Northeast it specifically refers to someone from New England. I assume that this regresses further, and that in New England it refers to someone from Massachusetts, where it refers to someone from Boston, that within Boston it refers to a specific neighborhood, and that within that neighborhood resides the One True Yankee.

I'm agnostic as to whether it's a hereditary title or one that comes with the house.

I thought that New Englanders used it to mean someone from New York, and New Yorkers used it to mean the baseball team.

I haven't met anyone who favours a more specific definition than "New Englander".

That said, when talking to Americans, I have heard "Yankee" used to refer to a widely-hated baseball team playing in the Bronx and its fans far more often than I have heard it used to refer to New Englanders. Given that the Bronx is not part of New England, I suspect it makes "Northeasterner" the more correct meaning to a descriptivist.

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