yankee
n. countablen. a person who comes from the United States, especially from the northern states. People outside the U.S. often use it to talk about any American, sometimes in a joking or slightly rude way.
n. a person from the United States, particularly one from the northern or New England states. Depending on the speaker's location and intent, the term can range from a neutral regional identifier to a mildly derogatory label for Americans in general.
The locals called the new visitor a Yankee.
During the international festival, the students joked about their friend being a typical Yankee because of his accent.
First attested in 1765, when it was described as "a name of derision … given by the Southern people on the Continent to those of New England". Various suggestions have been made as to its origin: that it derives from a Cherokee word meaning "slave" or "coward" and was applied to the New Englanders by the Virginians because the former refused to aid the latter in a war against the Cherokees; that it derives from Yengees, an Indian corruption of English; and that it derives from Janke, a pet form of the common Dutch forename Jan. The OED regards the last of these as "perhaps the most plausible".
Often shortened to 'Yank' in informal British or Australian English.