The meaning of the wordAmerican in the English language varies according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used.American is derived fromAmerica, a term originally denoting all of theAmericas (also called theWestern Hemisphere), ultimately derived from the name of theFlorentine explorer and cartographerAmerigo Vespucci (1451–1512). In some expressions, it retains this Pan-American sense, but its usage has evolved over time and, for various historical reasons, the word came to denote people or things specifically from theUnited States of America. In contemporary English,American generally refers topersons orthings related to the United States of America; among native English speakers this usage is almost universal, with any other use of the term requiring specification.[1] However, some have argued that "American" should be widened to also include people or things from anywhere in the American continents.[2][3]
The word can be used as either anadjective or anoun (viz. ademonym). In adjectival use, it means "of or relating to the United States"; for example, "Elvis Presley was an American singer" or "the man prefersAmerican English". In its noun form, the word generally means aresident orcitizen of the U.S., but is also used forsomeone whose ethnic identity is simply "American". The noun is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States when intending a geographical meaning.[1][not verified in body] When used with agrammatical qualifier, the adjectiveAmerican can mean "of or relating to the Americas", as inLatin American orIndigenous American. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, as in "American Spanish dialects and pronunciation differ by country" or the names of theOrganization of American States and theAmerican Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). A third use of the term pertains specifically to theindigenous peoples of the Americas, for instance, "In the 16th century, many Americans died from imported diseases during the European conquest", though this usage is rare, as "indigenous", "First Nations" or "Amerindian" are considered less confusing and generally more appropriate.
Compound constructions which indicate a minorityethnic group, such as "African Americans" likewise refer exclusively to people in or from the United States of America, as does theprefix "Americo-". For instance, theAmerico-Liberians and their languageMerico derive their name from the fact that they aredescended from African-American settlers, i.e. Blacks who were formerly enslaved in the United States of America.
French,German,Italian,Japanese,[a]Hebrew,Arabic, andRussian[b] speakers may use cognates ofAmerican to refer to inhabitants of the Americas or to U.S. nationals. They generally have other terms specific to U.S. nationals, such as the GermanUS-Amerikaner,[6] Frenchétatsunien,[7] Japanesebeikokujin (米国人),[8] and Italianstatunitense.[9] These specific terms may be less common than the termAmerican.[7]
In French,états-unien,étas-unien orétasunien, fromÉtats-Unis d'Amérique ("United States of America"), is a rarely used word that distinguishes U.S. things and persons from the adjectiveaméricain, which denotes persons and things from the United States, but may also refer to "the Americas".[7]
Likewise, German's use ofU.S.-amerikanisch andU.S.-Amerikaner[6] observe this cultural distinction, solely denoting U.S. things and people. In normal parlance, the adjective "American" and its direct cognates are usually used if the context renders the nationality of the person clear. This differentiation is prevalent in German-speaking countries, as indicated by thestyle manual of theNeue Zürcher Zeitung (one of the leading German-language newspapers in Switzerland) which dismisses the termU.S.-amerikanisch as both 'unnecessary' and 'artificial' and recommends replacing it withamerikanisch.[10] The respective guidelines of the foreign ministries of Austria, Germany and Switzerland all prescribeAmerikaner andamerikanisch in reference to the United States for official usage, making no mention ofU.S.-Amerikaner orU.S.-amerikanisch.[11]
Portuguese hasamericano, denoting both a person or thing from the Americas and a U.S. national.[12] For referring specifically to a U.S. national and things, some words used areestadunidense (also spelledestado-unidense, "United States person"), fromEstados Unidos da América, andianque ("Yankee")—both usages exist in Brazil (although "americano" is more frequent), but are uncommon in Portugal—but the term most often used, and the only one in Portugal, isnorte-americano, even though it could, as with its Spanish equivalent, apply to Canadians and Mexicans as well.
In Spanish,americano denotes geographic and cultural origin in the Americas, as well as (infrequently) a U.S. citizen;[13][14][c] the more common term isestadounidense ("United States person"),[16] which derives fromEstados Unidos de América ("United States of America"). The Spanish termnorteamericano ("North American") is frequently used to refer things and persons from the United States, but this term can also denote people and things from Canada and Mexico.[17] Among Spanish-speakers, North America generally does not include Central America or the Caribbean.
Conversely, inCzech, there is no possibility for disambiguation.Američan (m.) andameričanka (f.) can refer to persons from the United States or from the continents of the Americas, and there is no specific word capable of distinguishing the two meanings. For this reason, the latter meaning is very rarely used, and wordameričan(ka) is used almost exclusively to refer to persons from the United States. The usage is exactly parallel to the English word.
In other languages, however, there is no possibility for confusion. For example, theChinese word for "U.S. national" isměiguórén (simplified Chinese:美国人;traditional Chinese:美國人)[18][d] is derived from a word for the United States,měiguó, whereměi is an abbreviation forYàměilìjiā ("America") andguó is "country".[19][20][21] The name for the American continents isměizhōu, fromměi pluszhōu ("continent").[22] Thus, aměizhōurén is an American in the continent sense, and aměiguórén is an American in the U.S. sense.[e]
Korean andVietnamese also use unambiguous terms, with Korean havingMigug (미국(인)) for the country versusAmerika (아메리카) for the continents,[23] and Vietnamese havingHoa Kỳ for the country versusChâu Mỹ for the continents.[24]Japanese has such terms as well (beikoku(jin) [米国(人) versusbeishū(jin) [米洲人]), but they are found more in newspaper headlines than in speech, whereamerikajin predominates.[a][25]
InSwahili,Marekani means specifically the United States, andMmarekani is a U.S. national, whereas the international formAmerika refers to the continents, andMwamerika would be an inhabitant thereof.[26][27][28][f] Likewise, theEsperanto wordAmeriko refers to the continents. For the country there is the termUsono. Thus, a citizen of the United States is anusonano, whereas anamerikano is an inhabitant of the Americas.[30][31][32][33]
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The nameAmerica was coined byMartin Waldseemüller fromAmericus Vesputius, the Latinized version of the name ofAmerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), theFlorentine explorer who mapped South America's east coast and theCaribbean Sea in the early 16th century. Later, Vespucci's published letters were the basis ofWaldseemüller's 1507 map, which is the first usage ofAmerica. The adjectiveAmerican subsequently denoted the New World.[35]
In the 16th century, European usage ofAmerican denoted the native inhabitants of the New World.[36] The earliest recorded use of this term in English is inThomas Hacket's 1568 translation ofAndré Thévet's bookFrance Antarctique; Thévet himself had referred to the natives asAmeriques.[36] In the following century, the term was extended to European settlers and their descendants in the Americas. The earliest recorded use of "English-American" dates to 1648, inThomas Gage'sThe English-American his travail by sea and land: or, a new survey of the West India's.[36]
In English,American was used especially for people inBritish America.Samuel Johnson, the leading English lexicographer, wrote in 1775, before the United States declared independence: "That the Americans are able to bear taxation is indubitable."[36] TheDeclaration of Independence of July 1776 refers to "[the] unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America" adopted by the "Representatives of the united States of America" on July 4, 1776.[37] The official name of the country was reaffirmed on November 15, 1777, when theSecond Continental Congress adopted theArticles of Confederation, the first of which says, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'". The Articles further state:
In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the independence of America.
Thomas Jefferson, newly elected president in May 1801 wrote, "I am sure the measures I mean to pursue are such as would in their nature be approved by every American who can emerge from preconceived prejudices; as for those who cannot, we must take care of them as of the sick in our hospitals. The medicine of time and fact may cure some of them."[38]
InThe Federalist Papers (1787–88),Alexander Hamilton andJames Madison used the adjectiveAmerican with two different meanings: one political and one geographic; "the American republic" inFederalist No. 51 and inFederalist No. 70,[39][40] and, inFederalist No. 24, Hamilton usedAmerican to denote the lands beyond the U.S.'s political borders.[41]
Early official U.S. documents show inconsistent usage; the1778 Treaty of Alliance withFrance used "the United States of North America" in the first sentence, then "the said united States" afterwards; "the United States of America" and "the United States of North America" derive from "the United Colonies of America" and "the United Colonies of North America". The Treaty of Peace and Amity of September 5, 1795, between the United States and theBarbary States contains the usages "the United States of North America", "citizens of the United States", and "American Citizens".[42][improper synthesis?]
U.S. PresidentGeorge Washington, in his1796Farewell Address, declaimed that "The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation."[43] Political scientist Virginia L. Arbery notes that, in hisFarewell Address:
"...Washington invites his fellow citizens to view themselves now as Americans who, out of their love for the truth of liberty, have replaced their maiden names (Virginians, South Carolinians, New Yorkers, etc.) with that of “American”. Get rid of, he urges, “any appellation derived from local discriminations.” By defining himself as an American rather than as a Virginian, Washington set the national standard for all citizens. "Over and over, Washington said that America must be something set apart. As he put it toPatrick Henry, 'In a word, I want anAmerican character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act forourselves and not forothers.'"[44]
As the historianGarry Wills has noted: "This was a theme dear to Washington. He wrote toTimothy Pickering that the nation 'must never forget that we are Americans; the remembrance of which will convince us we ought not to be French or English'."[45] Washington's countrymen subsequently embraced his exhortation with notable enthusiasm.
This semantic divergence among North Americananglophones, however, remained largely unknown in the Spanish-American colonies. In 1801, the document titledLetter to American Spaniards—published in French (1799), in Spanish (1801), and in English (1808)—might have influencedVenezuela'sAct of Independence and its 1811 constitution.[46]
TheLatter-day Saints'Articles of Faith refer to the American continents as where they are to build Zion.[47]
Common short forms and abbreviations are theUnited States, theU.S., theU.S.A., andAmerica; colloquial versions include theU.S. of A. andthe States. The termColumbia (from the Columbus surname) was a popular name for the U.S. and for the entire geographic Americas; its usage is present today in theDistrict of Columbia's name. Moreover, the womanly personification of Columbia appears in some official documents, including editions of the U.S. dollar.
Use of the termAmerican for U.S. nationals is common at theUnited Nations, and financial markets in the United States are referred to as "American financial markets".[48]
American Samoa, anunincorporated territory of the United States, is a recognized territorial name at the United Nations.[49]
Modern Canadians typically refer to people from the United States asAmericans, though they seldom refer to the United States asAmerica; in English they use the termsthe United States,the U.S., or (informally)the States instead.[50] Because of anti-American sentiment or simply national pride, Canadians never apply the termAmerican to themselves.[51][52][53] Not being an "American" is a part ofCanadian identity,[54][55] with many Canadians resenting being referred to as Americans or mistaken for U.S. citizens.[56] This is often due to others' inability, particularly overseas, to distinguishEnglish-speaking Canadians fromAmericans, by theiraccent or other cultural attributes.[50] Some Canadians have protested the use ofAmerican as a national demonym.[57]
The use ofAmerican as a nationaldemonym for U.S. nationals is challenged, primarily by Hispanic Americans.[2] Spanish speakers in Spain andHispanic America use the termestadounidense to refer to people and things from the United States (fromEstados Unidos), whileamericano refers to thecontinents as a whole (fromAmérica).[13][58] The termgringo is also accepted in many parts of Hispanic America to refer to a person or something from the United States;[59] however, this term may be ambiguous in certain parts. Up to and including the 1992 edition, theDiccionario de la lengua española, published by theReal Academia Española, did not include the United States definition in the entry foramericano; this was added in the 2001 edition.[13][g][60] The Real Academia Española advised against usingamericanos exclusively for U.S. nationals:[17][61]
[Translated] It is common, and thus acceptable, to usenorteamericano as a synonym ofestadounidense, even though strictly speaking, the termnorteamericano can equally be used to refer to the inhabitants of any country in North America, it normally applies to the inhabitants of the United States. Butamericano should not be used to refer exclusively to the inhabitants of the United States, an abusive usage which can be explained by the fact that in the United States, they frequently abbreviate the name of the country to "America" (in English, with no accent).[g]
Generally,americano denotes "U.S. citizen" inPortugal.[12] The adjective currently used by the Portuguese press isnorte-americano.[62]
InBrazil, the termamericano is used to address both that which pertains to theAmericas and that which pertains to the U.S.; the particular meaning is deduced from context. Alternatively, the termnorte-americano ("North American") is also used in more informal contexts, whileestadunidense (of the U.S.) is the preferred form in academia. Use of the three terms is common in schools, government, and media. The termAmérica is used exclusively for the whole continent, and the U.S. is calledEstados Unidos ("United States") orEstados Unidos da América ("United States of America"), often abbreviatedEUA.[63]
"American" in the 1994Associated Press Stylebook was defined as, "An acceptable description for a resident of the United States. It also may be applied to any resident or citizen of nations in North or South America." Elsewhere, theAP Stylebook indicates that "United States" must "be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective."[64]
The entry for "America" inThe New York Times Manual of Style and Usage from 1999 reads:
[the] terms "America", "American(s)" and "Americas" refer not only to the United States, but to all of North America and South America. They may be used in any of their senses, including references to just the United States, if the context is clear. The countries of the Western Hemisphere are collectively 'the Americas'.
Media releases from thePope andHoly See frequently use "America" to refer to the United States, and "American" to denote something or someone from the United States.[65]
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At least one international law usesU.S. citizen in defining a citizen of the United States rather thanAmerican citizen; for example, the English version of theNorth American Free Trade Agreement includes:
Only air carriers that are "citizens of the United States" may operate aircraft in domestic air service (cabotage) and may provide international scheduled and non-scheduled air service as U.S. air carriers...
Under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, a "citizen of the United States" means:
- (a) an individual who is a U.S. citizen;
- (b) a partnership in which each member is a U.S. citizen; or
- (c) a U.S. corporation of which the president and at least two-thirds of the board of directors and other managing officers are U.S. citizens, and at least 75 percent of the voting interest in the corporation is owned or controlled by U.S. citizens.[66]
Many international treaties use the termsAmerican andAmerican citizen:
Products that are labeled, advertised, and marketed in the U.S. as "Made in the USA" must be, as set by theFederal Trade Commission (FTC), "all or virtually all made in the U.S." The FTC, to prevent deception of customers and unfair competition, considers an unqualified claim of "American Made" to expressly claim exclusive manufacture in the U.S: "TheFTC Act gives the Commission the power to bring law enforcement actions against false or misleading claims that a product is of U.S. origin."[74]
There are a number of alternatives to thedemonymAmerican as a citizen of the United States that do not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas. One uncommon alternative isUsonian, which usually describes a certain style of residentialarchitecture designed byFrank Lloyd Wright. Other alternatives have also surfaced, but most have fallen into disuse and obscurity.Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says:
The list contains (in approximate historical order from 1789 to 1939) such terms as Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, United Stater.[75]
Nevertheless, no alternative toAmerican is common.[1]
We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent...
[Translated:] 1. adj. Native of the United States of America[Original:] "1. adj. Natural de los Estados Unidos de América."
[Translated:] 3. adj. Bol., Chile, Col., Cuba, Ec., El Salv., Hond., Nic., Par., Peru, Ur. and Ven. Native of the United States of America[Original:] "3. adj. Bol., Chile, Col., Cuba, Ec., El Salv., Hond., Nic., Par., Perú, Ur. y Ven. estadounidense."
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