Talk:Yankee

Comment on Etymology
I've known it as Dutch for a smelly cheese 'Jank kees'[sounds like Yohnkeess] They called the English and sailors this because they didn't bathe and smelled so bad. In that age of medical knowledge bathing caused illness (from contaminated water). It was the current wisdom of the English who also had the most populated and polluted cities known at the time. Crapper had not invented the toilet yet and there were no sewers except the streets where honey buckets were emptied. This was washed by rain into low areas and rivers which spread diseases.