Are We Living In A Post-Racial Age?

[Cain]

Interesting fact: the word "Yankee" is a corruption of the Dutch word for pirate, a term of abuse for early Americans, given for the incredible number of copyright infringements on the inventions of various European nations undertaken by the newly formed USA.

[LMNO]

Wasn't "Yankee Doodle" originally written as an insult against the Americas?

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Wasn't "Yankee Doodle" originally written as an insult against the Americas?

I think (it's been awhile) that we're not really sure where Yankee comes from (lots of theories), but the song Yankee Doodle was originally a british song pre-Revolution. The Americans proudly (durr) took it and made it their own by 1776.

Initially, I think it was making fun of the colonial military people that were always dressed in full regalia (the Macaroni reference in the song is a poke at that).

[Aufenthatt]

I was absent mindedly playing yankee doodle on a keyboard one christmas when my old grandmother started singing a totaly different song. I think the tune comes from an old English childrens song.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I was absent mindedly playing yankee doodle on a keyboard one christmas when my old grandmother started singing a totaly different song. I think the tune comes from an old English childrens song.

Was it

    Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
    Kitty Fisher found it;
    Not a penny was there in it,
    Only ribbon 'round it.

?

[Aufenthatt]

No, but it was similar innane dribble.

[Triple Zero]

Interesting fact: the word "Yankee" is a corruption of the Dutch word for pirate, a term of abuse for early Americans, given for the incredible number of copyright infringements on the inventions of various European nations undertaken by the newly formed USA.

"pirate" in Dutch is just "piraat".

wikipedia sez:

The most plausible derivation is from the Dutch first names "Jan" and "Kees." "Jan" and "Kees" were and still are common Dutch first names, and also common Dutch given names or nicknames. In many instances both names (Jan-Kees) are also used as a single first name in the Netherlands. The word Yankee in this sense would be used as a form of contempt, applied derisively to Dutch or English settlers in the New England states.[2] Another speculation suggests the Dutch form was Jan Kaas, "John Cheese", from the prevalence of dairy-farming among the Dutch, but this seems far-fetched. Michael Quinion and Patrick Hanks argue[4] that the term refers to the Dutch nickname and surname Janneke (from "Jan" and the diminutive "ke", meaning "Little John" or Johnny in dutch), anglicized to Yanke (the "J" is pronounced "Y" in dutch) and "used as a nickname for a Dutch-speaking American in colonial times". By extension, the term grew to include non-Dutch colonists as well. Another possible explanation is that the name "Kees", normally an abbreviation for "Cornelius" in Dutch, also means a monkey or baboon. This usage is still in use in Afrikaans. This means that that the origin of "Yankee" is "Jan Kees" or "John Baboon."

that "kees" also means monkey or baboon is news to me, but maybe in Afrikaans, it could be.