Yankee

appears with the meaning of 'colonist from the northeastern regions of the future territory of the United States' (the other colonists are called creoles). from the English yankee attested since 1758 as a nickname for American colonists by the English. the origin of the term is unknown: it is a nickname for a person in attestations, the oldest of which dates back to 1683 and where it is about Dutch people, it is assumed that yankey, yankee comes from the Dutch janke, diminutive of jan 'John'.