Origin of the Term "Yankee."

The first name given by the Indians to Europeans was "Wapsid Lenape" (white people), but later they endeavored to imitate the sound of the national name of the English, which they pronounced "Yengees." About the middle of the Revolution, the Indians applied the name "Yengees" exclusively to the people of the New England States, who themselves seem to have adopted it, with slight alteration, as "Yankees." But another origin is given for the appellation of Yankee to all New Englanders, sometimes by way of reproach, as follows:

A farmer, by name Jonathan Hastings, of Cambridge, about the year 1713, used it as a favorite cant word to express excellence, as a Yankee good horse, Yankee cider, etc. The students at college, having frequent intercourse with Mr. Hastings, adopted the word, and called him, from his frequent use of it, "Yankee Jonathan." From college it was circulated through the country, and was at length applied, unjustly, to all New Englanders.

But the best authorities on the subject now agree upon the derivation of this term from the imperfect effort made by the Northern Indians to pronounce the word "English."