Canadian Farmer Guy wrote:As far as I know, "Yank" refers to any American
Is there a different meaning down south?
CFG
Aside from meaning that you are Canadian? hehe.
Yeah. When I was living in Boston and in Maine (southern coast), yankee generally referred to New Englanders with a pedigree going back to the Mayflower if we used the term at all. It also was an adjective to describe food or craft of longstanding tradition in that region.
Elsewhere, through much of the US, yankee will mean a thing or a person from a northern state in the US, one that was on the northern side in the Civil War. Very loosely applied, though. I was born below the Mason-Dixon line (Maryland's northern border pretty much) by a hair, and grew up below it, so I could sometimes claim southern heritage with someone who was poor in geography and history. Jersey girl, Atlantic City and south... Definitely yankee.
Now I live below the Deep South. I'm so far south that I'm north again... Not really, but I can't claim to be a Southerner with a capital S because I'm a yankee from Florida. Has nothing to do with my place of birth, but more the region I live in and the customs I have.
The fellas from South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas and wherever else we might consider Deep South will very definitely view Yankee as an epithet for northern USians, usually preceded by Damn. Of course, Texans are notoriously independent and may resist being thought of as Deep South. At least Gumbo knows his Louisiana wore gray in the Civil War.
You know how Canadians have little inside jokes about the Territories or Newfies or people from Ottawa? Or if you run into a really bad driver, you think, "Must be from Toronto!" That's what we do. I'm sure Charlie has some funny thoughts on the difference between South Carolina and North Carolina and Ted could tell you some Okie stories.
Come to think of it, depending on where in Canada you are from, you probably condemn poor drivers as being from Detroit.
When I lived in Maine, people there thought Boston was marginally the Deep South.