<noun> Colloquial
1. Term used by Southern Americans to refer to a Northern American.
2. Term used by foreign nations, chiefly Britain and Australia to refer to Americans.
==> The term is thought to derive from Dutch settlers in the 1600's referring to the
English colonials as '
Jan Kees' (John Cheese) which entered our language with the spelling '
Yankees,' as that is how it would sound in Dutch. 'Yanks' is simply a shortened form of it.