a popular 18th-century marching song which has become almost a national song in the US. It was first sung by British soldiers to make fun of Americans during the American Revolution , but then became popular with George Washington’s soldiers. ‘Yankee’ probably comes from ‘Janke’, the Dutch for ‘Johnny’ and a common name in early New York. ‘Doodle’ is an old-fashioned English word meaning a stupid person. The song begins
Yankee Doodle came to town:
Riding on a pony;
He stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.