Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A . C O M 85 W I L D W ES T W O R DS W I L D W ES T W O R DS with CHRYSTI THE WORDSMITH DEPARTMENT HERITAGE HERITAGE HERITAGE e origin of YANKEE has been much discussed throughout the last two centuries. Writers, historians and word scholars have proposed various etymologies for the term, but none of these has been authenticated. Today, Yankee is a nickname for a native New Englander or, more generally, an inhabitant of the Northern states. ere are no glaring negative associations with the moniker, but when Yankee emerged in the 1700s, it was indisputably derogatory. British General James Wolfe, writing in 1758 of the American colonial troops under his command, called them Yankees, adding, "ey are the dirtiest, most contemptible cowardly dogs you can conceive." When British lexicographer Francis Grose defined the term in his 1796 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, he wrote, "Yankey, or Yankey Doodle. A booby, or country lout: a name given to New England men in North America." In the face of such defamation, American colonists turned the word on its head and embraced it as a term of pride. Some word watchers have guessed that the word arose from Al- gonquin native's attempts to pronounce the word English, resulting in such constructions as Yengees and Yinglees. As the Dutch were among the earliest settlers in the New World, some propose that Yankee comes from Jantje, the diminutive of the common Dutch name Jan. By far the most plausible asser- tion makes Yankee a variant of Jan Kaas, meaning "John Cheese," a disparaging English nickname for Dutch immigrants. from the diary of a Kansan named L.B. Wolf who wrote on December 1, 1859, "A blizzard had come upon us about midnight... Shot 7 horses that were so chilled could not get up." Then, on March 14, 1870, the Midwest was pounded by a particu- larly ferocious spring storm. An Estherville, Iowa newspaper editor described this "blizard" in The Northern Vindicator. Eleven years later, in 1881, a publication called the New York National reported, "The hard weather has called into use a word which promises to become a national Americanism, namely blizzard. It designates a storm of snow and wind which men cannot resist, away from shelter." So it appears that journalistic efforts during the last half of the 1800s promulgated this new meteorological sense of the term. Adopted by other local journalists, the word ultimately became the standard American name for a sustained winter storm. The curious thing about this now-familiar word is that no one has been able to positively identify its source. One speculation has bliz- zard deriving from the German Blitz, meaning 'lightning.' The Oxford English Dictionary suggests the word may have been coined by English speakers to imitate the sound of fast and furious move- ment, whether of bullets, epithets, or the gusting of a winter gale. YANKEE

• Cover