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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!barryg
From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Yankee Doodle
Message-ID: <1856@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Mar-85 22:37:55 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.1856
Posted: Fri Mar 22 22:37:55 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Mar-85 02:21:37 EST
References: <660@oddjob.UUCP>
Reply-To: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica
Lines: 14
Summary: 

Random House gives the following etymology for Yankee.

     A possible back formation from Dutch.  Jan Kees (John Cheese)
was a nickname (mistaken for a plural) applied by the colonial NY Dutch
to English settlers in connecticut.

That makes Yankee a Dutch version of Johnny.

Doodle is defined (in he same dictionary) as originally meaning fool.

So a Yankee Doodle is an Anglo Saxon Dolt.  Given the original song is
about a country bumpkin, it seems to fit okay.

--Lee gold