Yankeedom

[ yang-kee-duhm ]

noun

1. the region inhabited by Yankees.
2. Yankees collectively.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Yankeedom¹

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45; Yankee + -dom

Example Sentences

"That's triple and quadruple the rate of New Netherland — the most densely populated part of the continent — which has a rate of 3.8, which is comparable to that of Switzerland. Yankeedom is the next safest at 8.6, which is about half that of Deep South, and Left Coast follows closely behind at 9."

From Salon

Despite some truly original insights, the result, too often, is a disjointed narrative, lurching from era to era, crisis to crisis, with the leading actors scrutinized by their places of origin — Yankeedom, Tidewater, Far West — as if personal geography was the determining factor in most everything they did.

From Washington Post

I’m still trying to figure out how one part of my home state of Pennsylvania wound up in Yankeedom, part in the Midlands and the rest in Greater Appalachia.

From Washington Post

Woodard counted 11 regions in all, nine fully in the United States, such as “Yankeedom,” the moralistic, community-centered territories of New England, New York and the Upper Midwest; “Tidewater,” the slaveholding parts of the Chesapeake Bay area and Virginia that produced civic-minded aristocrats such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson; “Greater Appalachia,” home to fiercely independent, anti-elitist folk like Andrew Jackson; and the “Deep South,” the lair of rapacious, ne’er-do-well leaders with no sense “of responsibility to the rest of society.”

From Washington Post

Woodard includes Franklin D. Roosevelt, an odd choice given FDR’s pure Yankeedom roots and reputation as the father of the modern welfare state.

From Washington Post