The term "Yankee" and its contracted form "Yank" have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the scope of context. Most broadly: * Outside the United States, "Yank" is used informally to refer to any American, including Southerners. * Within Southern American English, "Yankee" is a derisive term used to refer to any and all Northerners, or those from the regions of the Union side of the American Civil War. * Elsewhere in the United States, it largely refers to people from the Northeast, but especially those with New England cultural ties, such as descendants from colonial New England settlers, wherever they live. Its sense is more cultural than literally geographical, sometimes emphasizing the Calvinist Puritan Chri