No problem, I'll stop. I was just using it as it's used where I grew up, which is basically as a generic term that means "someone who is not from the South." It wasn't meant in offense, nor was it something (least, to the best of my experience) that's used to distinguish between different types of non-Southerners. In other words, just as anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line is ostensibly a "southerner" (but not necessarily so), anyone north of it is "yankee" (and as I'm well aware, not necessarily so). I guess you could say it's a geographic shorthand, but I understand if it's something you see as an ethnic shorthand.
I just ask that in return, you understand that as a Southerner, all not-raised-here (or alternately, all raised-up-there) are default as Yankees, regardless of ethnic, religious, or other differentiations. That it's not meant as offense when a Southerner uses it: it's meant to distinguish one's geographic origins. Basically, it's casually synonymous with "northerner". I say that only so you're aware in future that it's not meant as a slander in any way, if you come across it being used elsewhere.
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Date: 4 Feb 2011 07:46 pm (UTC)I just ask that in return, you understand that as a Southerner, all not-raised-here (or alternately, all raised-up-there) are default as Yankees, regardless of ethnic, religious, or other differentiations. That it's not meant as offense when a Southerner uses it: it's meant to distinguish one's geographic origins. Basically, it's casually synonymous with "northerner". I say that only so you're aware in future that it's not meant as a slander in any way, if you come across it being used elsewhere.