caroline_edinburgh

I hold no brief for Fayed, but a website called www.guardianlies.com... not biased in any way, then ?

audere_est_facere

Of course it's biased - but them so am I.

In any case half the yanks that post on Fodors think the BBC is a left wing plot. You doubt me? Enter the Lounge at your own peril.

travelinwifey

audere_est_facere, would you please stop calling Americans yanks? It makes you sound very backwards. Since you do not live here you don't understand what the connotation in this country is. Would you not think it be wierd that people call British Elizabethans in 2007? That is from an era from a few hundred years ago, like when there were "yanks" a few hundred years ago. The only people in America that use the word "yanks" today are rednecks. Do you want to be considered a redneck? I apologize for being so blunt but I've read these comments for a while now and they are quite insulting, especially when you don't understand the meaning.

Furthermore, half of of the people that post in the lounge do not think the BBC is a left wing plot. Hundreds of people post there. Why don't you make a list of all of the members from us and show us who feels that way vs. who doesn't?

Regarding Harrods, I agree with the previous comment that you do not go into a luxury department store and expect prices to be cheap.

PalenQ

audere_est_farce, would you please stop calling Americans yanks?

It should be Yanks - show some respect you redneck.

Guess NY Yankees should change their name?

personally i have used the work Yank to refer to myself often when talking to limeys and i never knew it had a redneck connotation.

Guess i'll have to re-evaluate as i do not want to be called a Hill Billy.

audere- show some respect.

travelinwifey: i'm afraid such a reprehend to audere will backfire as he prides himself in offending yanks (and usually in obvious good natured humour)

PalenQ

after reading this definition of Yank i have to agree with travelineifey that the word Yank is rather perjorative - more than i thunk. And note audere - Yank is indeed capitalized. Show some respect along with your irreverance!

Yank n., adj. To a Brit, a Yank is anyone of American descent. It's not altogether complimentary and conjures up an image of Stetsons, oil wells, Cadillacs and overweight children. It was once popular to call large American automobiles Yank tanks - a description one might regard as unfair to the humble tank. The word is derived from Yankee, which I'm told by a contributor is an Indian word referring to those from Connecticut and New England. I am told by yet another member of my private army of researchers that Yankee was a derogatory term for northerners dating back to the American Civil War and is in fact an amalgamation of two common Dutch names - "Jan" and "Kees". Various others tell me it's from the War of Independence and as if that lot wasn't enough, I get about two mails a week from Americans defining a Yank as being someone from another part of the US. Well, as far as I'm concerned (and, I'm afraid, as far as everyone else in Britain is concerned) it refers to Americans. It's my dictionary, and that's that. Nobody said this was democratic. Pick a definition and run with it, that's what I say. When Americans stop calling anyone British "English", We'll stop calling y'all Yanks. A word to, erm, any British readers going on holiday: just don't use this term at all in the US. It'll make life much easier.

travelinwifey

I don't mind humor at all but it is just becoming offenisve at this point. Especially when one does not understand what the meaning of the word is today. But by all means if he/she wants to continue to sound backwards more power to him/her. But he/she should be aware of what the word means today in America as he/she is misinformed and therefore embarassing his/herself

Roger_Lisa

Let's try to remember what us YANKS have done to better most non-YANKS lives with OUR blood and money! I read on this board a lot of people defending the European way of life and at the same time casting aspertions on their fellow AMERICANS! I don't get it and I am offended. Why can't this site just be about travel and leave the rest of the nonsense alone.

Heimdall

Travelinwifey, I am an American living in England, and in no way am offended by the term "yank", unless it is preceeded by the word "bloody". Unfortunately, we Yanks who live here have to put up with our reputation for lack of a sense of humor, and failure to understand irony. A little good natured banter never hurt anyone.

Heimdall

BTW, yank isn't the only word that has a different meaning in the UK from that in America. ;-)

MissPrism

Well, way back in the 60s I heard Yankee used by a black colleague to mean an American whose family had been in the country for more than two generations.
I myself have always thought of it as referring to a New Englander.
BTW, the colleague who was quite wealthy and upper middle-class referred to herself as a Negro. Times have changed.

Josser

Golly, what is this noise?
Can it be the twanging of elastic.
The slang word in the UK for an American is a Yank. It isn't pejorative unless as somebody says, it has bloody in front of it.
Shhhh! Don't mention the word seppo to travelinwifey.

nbujic

Do people who demonstrate against Americans in different parts of the world steel shout "Yankee go home" ?
Some people may relate the word to this image.
My understanding was that people in the southern US DO NOT call them Yankees!

JLL82

Canadians call Americans Yankees. But not in a pejorative way.

carolyn

PalenQ, please do not refer to anyone as a hill billy. The politically correct term is Appalachian American.

There is an eatery in a local mall called Yang Kee Noodles.

PalenQ

carolyn - we've been thru this before and i agree - i guess my sarcasm didn't show thru. But i will not repeat it, even in jest.

But as in the other discussion on this it appears hill billies often refer to themselves as such but others should not do it - i understand - kind of like Blacks and the 'N' word.

My daughter-in-law fondly refers to her Dad as a 'hill billy'

But again i note the perjorative of an outsider using this. thanks

janisj

travelinwifey - sorry but you simply can't speak for all us &quot;Yanks&quot;. Heck - I live in california and call huge cars Yank Tanks. Some in the South and other parts of the USA <i>might</i> take offence - but the vast majority wouldn't bat an eye to be called a Yank.

On a site like this Yank / Brit and such are NOT perjorative. Just a shorthand for Americans and English/Scot/Welsh etc.

Roger_Lisa

Then I guess brit males wont take offence if a YANK said to them that ALL UK males are gay and have bad teeth?

tuscanlifeedit

Holy Moley! I've been an American all my life and never heard anything about the word &quot;Yank&quot; being an outdated perjorative.

I have heard and read of Southerners (US South, that is) referring to YankEES in a way that implied something negative. But with mass migration, my guess is that one would need enter some very deep back woods to hear even that, these days.

I also thought that Yank/Yanks had to have a negative adjective in front of it to be insulting. And I didn't know that Canadians called people from the US Yankees.

I thought I was a well informed woman; humph... I didn't even know about St Custard's.

Roger_Lisa

Most brits refer to &quot;Yanks&quot; in a way that implied something negative! All the while forgetting how our fathers and grandfathers stood shoulder to shoulder with them to defend their way of life! I just don't understand why they have to cast aspertions?

janisj

Roger_Lisa: &quot;<i>Most brits refer to &quot;Yanks&quot; in a way that implied something negative! All the while forgetting how our fathers and grandfathers stood shoulder to shoulder with them to defend their way of life! I just don't understand why they have to cast aspertions?</i>&quot;

That is just plain silly (I was going to say stooopid) and you are simply wrong. &quot;Brits&quot; use &quot;Yank&quot; all sorts of ways. The vast majority simply use it to mean someone from the US. Sure - in some cases they are taking the micky out of us. So what??

But most of the time it just means American. Don't be so touchy!