Use of the word American
Encyclopedia
The meaning of the word American in the English language
varies, according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used. It is derived from America
, a term originally denoting all of the New World
(today also called "the Americas
"). 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 the United States of America
. In modern English, "American" generally refers to the United States, and in the U.S. itself this usage is almost universal, with any other use of the term requiring specification of the subject under discussion.
The word can be used as both a noun
and an adjective
. In adjectival use, it is generally understood to mean "of or relating to the United States"; for example, "Elvis Presley
was an American singer" or "the American President gave a speech today." In noun form, it generally means U.S. citizen or national
(see Names for U.S. citizens). The noun is rarely used in American English
to refer to people not connected to the United States. When used with a grammatical qualifier
, the adjective American can mean "of or relating to the Americas," as in Latin America
n or Indigenous American
. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, as in "American Spanish
dialects and pronunciation differ by country", or the name of the Organization of American States
. A third use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas
, for instance, "In the 16th century, many Americans died from imported diseases during the European conquest".
, French
, Portuguese
, German
, and Italian
languages use cognates of the word "American", in denoting "U.S. citizen". In Spanish, americano denotes geographic and cultural origin in the New World, as well as less frequently a U.S. national; the adjective and noun, denoting a U.S. national, estadounidense (United States person), derives from Estados Unidos de América (United States of America). Such usage is slightly more descriptive than "American", but also not sufficiently specific to the United States of America, since it would be equally applicable to citizens of Mexico, which is officially named Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States). The Spanish term norteamericano (North American), is frequently used to refer things and persons from the United States, but this usage is not accurate, because the term can also denote things and persons from Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Bermuda and St Pierre and Miquelon.
The Spanish words estadounidense (United States person), yanqui (Yankee), and gringo
are Mexican, Central American, Caribbean, South American and European Spanish usages denoting U.S. things and persons. In personal denotation, "gringo" means estadounidense, in particular, and anglophones in general, and, linguistically, any speech not Spanish, i.e. "She is speaking gringo, not Spanish". Cognate usages may cause cultural friction between U.S. nationals and Latin Americans who object to American English's exclusionary denotations of American.
Portuguese has americano, denoting both a person or thing from the Americas and a U.S. national. For referring specifically to a U.S. national and things, the words used are estadunidense (also spelled estado-unidense) (United States person), from Estados Unidos da América, and ianque (Yankee), but the term most often used is norte-americano, even though it could, as with its Spanish equivalent, in theory apply to Canadians, Mexicans, etc., as well. In French, étasunien, from États-Unis d'Amérique, distinguishes U.S. things and persons from the adjective américain, which denotes persons and things from the United States but may also refer to the Americas; likewise, the German usages U.S.-amerikanisch and U.S.-Amerikaner observe said cultural distinction, solely denoting U.S. things and people. It is important to note that these are "politically correct" terms and that in normal parlance, the adjective "American" and its direct cognates are almost always used unless the context does not render the nationality of the person clear. For example, the word "Amerika" in German has a one-to-one equivalence to its meaning in modern English: it may denote North America, South America, or both, and in some instances refers to the United States.
Chinese has in which the first element sounds like the accented second syllable in "America" (and the second element means "nation").
The derivation of America has several explanatory naming theories. The most common is Martin Waldseemüller
's deriving it from Americus Vespucius, the Latinised version of Amerigo Vespucci
's name, the Italian merchant and cartographer who explored South America's east coast and the Caribbean
sea in the early 16th century. Later, his published letters were the basis of Waldseemüller's 1507 map
, which is the first usage of America. (See )
In 1886, Jules Marcou
said Vespucci renamed himself from Alberigo Vespucci (Albericus Vespucius) to Amerigo Vespucci after meeting the native inhabitants of the eponymous Amerrique mountain ranges of Nicaragua that connect North America and South America, an important geographic feature of New World
maps and charts. Moreover, there is the 1908 theory that America derives from Richard Amerike
of Bristol, England, financier of John Cabot
's 1497 expedition. Cabot is believed the first Western European on the mainland. In the event, the adjective American subsequently denotes the New World's peoples and things.
16th-century European usage of American denoted the native inhabitants of the New World. The earliest recorded use of this term in English is in Thomas Hacket's 1568 translation of André Thévet
's book on France Antarctique
; Thévet himself had referred to the natives as Ameriques. In the following century the term was extended to European settlers and their descendants in the Americas. The earliest recorded use of this term in English dates to 1648, in Thomas Gage
's The English-American: A New Survet of the West Indies. In English, "American" was used especially for people in the British America
, and came to be applied to citizens of the United States when the country was formed. The Declaration of Independence
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. The official name of the country was established on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress
adopted the Articles of Confederation
, the first of which says, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America' ". The confederation 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." Common short forms and abbreviations are the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., and America. Colloquial versions are the U.S. of A. and the States. The term Columbia (from the Columbus surname), was a popular name for the U.S. and for the entire geographic Americas; its usage is restricted to the District of Columbia name. Moreover, the womanly personification of Columbia appears in some official documents, including editions of the U.S. dollar.
In the Federalist Papers
, Alexander Hamilton
and James Madison
use American with two different meanings, political and geographic; "the American republic" in Federalist Paper 51 and in Federalist Paper 70, and, in Federalist Paper 24, Hamilton's American usage denotes the lands beyond the U.S.'s political borders:
United States President George Washington
's farewell in 1796 says: "The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation."
Originally, the name "the United States" was plural—"the United States are"—a usage found in the U.S. Constitution's Thirteenth Amendment
(1865), but its current common usage is singular—"the United States is". The plural is set in the idiom "these United States".
Before the Constitutional Convention, several country names were proffered, the most popular being "Columbia". The problems of "the United States of America" as a name (long, awkward, imprecise) were discussed; the Constitution ignores the matter, using "the United States of America" and "the United States". The name "Colombia" (derived from Christopher Columbus; Sp: Cristóbal Colón, It: Cristoforo Colombo), was proposed by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda
to denote the New World—especially Spain's and Portugal's American territories and colonies; it was used in the country names Republic of Columbia
and the United States of Colombia
.
Early official U.S. documents betray inconsistent usage; the 1778 Treaty of Alliance
with France
uses "the United States of North America" in the first sentence, then uses "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 the Barbary States contains the usages "the United States of North America", "citizens of the United States", and "American Citizens".
Semantic divergence among Anglophones did not affect the Spanish colonies. In 1801, the document titled Letter to American Spaniards—published in French (1799), in Spanish (1801), and in English (1808)—might have influenced Venezuela
's Act of Independence
and its 1811 constitution.
The Latter-day Saints' Articles of Faith
refer to the American continent as where they are to build Zion. The Old Catholic Encyclopedia's usage of America is as "the Western Continent or the New World". It discusses American republics, ranging from the U.S. to "the republic of Mexico, the Central American republics of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Leon, and Panama; the Antillian republics of Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Cuba, and the South American republics of Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, the Argentine, and Chile".
. The Secretary General refers to people from the United States as Americans, as has the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The UN has referred to financial markets in the United States as "American financial markets."
American Samoa
is a recognized territorial name at the United Nations.
for U.S. nationals is challenged, primarily by Latin Americans. Many Spanish speakers in Latin America use the term estadounidense ("United-Statesian") rather than americano. The dictionary of Real Academia Española
in 1992 did not include the alternative from the United States as one of the meanings of americano.
The Diccionario de la Lengua Española
(Dictionary of the Spanish Language) published by the Real Academia Española
(Royal Spanish Academy), defines estadounidense (United Statesian) as "someone or something from or relating to the United States", the common Spanish usage for U.S. people and things. People originating from, or who have lived in, the Western Hemisphere might be called americanos.
Moreover, the Royal Spanish Academy advises against using americanos exclusively for U.S. nationals:
English translation:
in 1867, the word "Canadian" referred only to residents of the colony of Canada
, which consisted of the territory of modern Quebec
and Ontario
. The term did not apply to residents of the colonies of New Brunswick
, Nova Scotia
, Prince Edward Island
or Newfoundland
. Collectively, the British colonies were known as British North America
, and their residents referred to themselves as "British Americans." Since the War of 1812, the term "American" acquired a pejorative context within Canada. Even since the BNA Act of 1867, which defines the word Canada
in its modern context, the pejorative context of the term "American" remains widespread.
Modern Canadians typically refer to people from the United States as "Americans", though they seldom refer to the United States as "America", using the terms "the United States", "the U.S.", or (informally) "the States" instead. Canadians rarely apply the term "American" to themselves – some Canadians resent being referred to as Americans because of mistaken assumptions that they are U.S. citizens or an inability, particularly of people overseas, to distinguish Canadian English
and American English
accents
. Some Canadians have protested the use of American as a national demonym. People of U.S. ethnic origin in Canada are categorized as "American (U.S.)" by Statistics Canada
for purposes of census
counts.
. Usage of americano to exclusively denote people and things of the U.S. is discouraged by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Lisbon Academy of Sciences), because the specific word estado-unidense (also estadunidense) clearly denotes a person from the United States. The term currently used by the Portuguese press is norte-americano.
In Brazil, the term americano (American) is used to address both that which pertains to the American continent and, in current speech, that which pertains to the U.S.A. (the particular meaning is deduced from context). Alternatively the term "norte-americano" (North American) is also used in more informal contexts while "estadunidense" (U.S. citizen or thing) is the preferred form in academia. Use of the three terms is common in schools, government and media. The term "América" (America) on the other hand is used almost exclusively for the continent as the U.S.A. are called "Estados Unidos" (United States) or "Estados Unidos da América" (United States of America), often abbreviated to "EUA" (USA).
The Getting Through Customs website advises business travellers not to use "in America" as a U.S. reference when conducting business in Brazil.
The United States Census Bureau
reports 7.3 percent of U.S. residents to be of "United States or American" ancestry based on responses to the 2000 Census long-form questionnaire (1 in 6 sample). Discrete responses of United States and American or an ambiguous response or a state-name response (excluding Hawaii) were aggregated as "United States or American". Distinct racial, ethnic, and cultural groups such as "American Indian
", "Mexican American
", "African American
", and "Hawaiian
" were coded separately.
The word "American" appears in the name of the U.S. territory of American Samoa
. American Samoa began using the word American in its title when it became a U.S. territory.
(1994) is 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, the AP Stylebook indicates that "United States" must "be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective".
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage
(1999) America entry 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 the Pope
and Holy See
frequently use America to refer to the United States, and American to denote something or someone from the United States.
:
Many other international treaties use the term American and American citizen. The Thailand
Treaty of Amity protects Americans and American companies. The Treaty between the United States and the Dey
of the Regency of Algiers
on March 7, 1796 protected American citizens. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty between France
and United States referred to American citizens. The 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce
between the United States and Japan
protected American citizens and also used the term American. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
between Mexico
and the U.S. uses the term American Government to refer to the United States, and American tribunals to refer to U.S. courts. The 1825 treaty between the United States and the Cheyenne
tribe refers to American citizen. The Treaty of Paris
ending the Spanish-American War
, known as Guerra Hispano-Estadounidense in Spanish, uses the word American in reference to United States troops.
, French
, German
, Italian
, Japanese
, Hebrew
, Arabic
, Portuguese
, and Russian
speakers may use the term American to refer to either inhabitants of the Americas or to U.S. nationals. They generally have other terms specific to U.S. nationals, such as German US-Amerikaner, French étatsunien, Japanese 米国人 beikokujin, Arabic أمريكاني amriikaanii (as opposed to the more-common أمريكي amriikii), and Italian statunitense, but these may be less common than the term American. Adjectives derived from "United States" (such as United Statesian) are awkward in English, but similar constructions exist in Spanish (estadounidense), Portuguese (estado-unidense, estadunidense), Finnish
(yhdysvaltalainen: from Yhdysvallat, United States), as well as in French (états-unien), and Italian (statunitense).
In Spanish
, at least one reference reports estadounidense, estado-unidense or estadunidense are preferred to americano for U.S. nationals; the latter tends to refer to any resident of the Americas and not necessarily from the United States. In Portuguese, estado-unidense(or estadunidense) is the recommended form by language regulators but today it is less frequently used than americano and norte-americano.
Latin Americans also may employ the term norteamericano (North American), which conflates the United States, Canada and Mexico.
With the 1994 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement
, the following words were used to label the United States Section of that organization: in French, étatsunien; in Spanish, estadounidense. In English the adjective used to indicate relation to the United States is U.S.
The word Gringo
is widely used in parts of Latin America
in reference to U.S. residents, often in a pejorative way but not necessarily. Yanqui (Yankee
) is also very common in some regions, but it is usually pejorative. Throughout Latin America the word Gringo is also used for any foreigner from the United States, Canada, or Europe, however the true sense of the word is any foreigner.
In other languages, however, there is no possibility for confusion. Chinese
měiguórén for example, is derived from a word for the United States, měiguó, where měi is an abbreviation for Yàměilìjiā "America" and guó is "country". The name for the continent of America is měizhōu, from měi plus zhōu "continent". Thus a měizhōurén is an American in the generic sense, and a měiguórén is an American in the U.S. sense. Similar words are found in Korean and Vietnamese. In Swahili
, the more naturalized word Marekani means specifically the United States, and Wamarekani are U.S. nationals, whereas the international form Amerika refers to the continent, and Waamerika are the inhabitants thereof. Likewise, the Esperanto
word Ameriko refers only to the continent. For the country there is the term Usono, cognate with the English word Usonia
later popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright. Thus a citizen of the United States is an usonano, whereas an amerikano is an inhabitant of the Americas.
"American" (a citizen of the United States) that do not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas. One uncommon alternative is "Usonian", which usually describes a certain style of residential architecture
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
. Over the years, many other alternatives have also surfaced, but most have long 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." Nevertheless, no alternative to "American" is common.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
varies, according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used. It is derived from America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, a term originally denoting all of the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
(today also called "the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
"). 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 the United States of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In modern English, "American" generally refers to the United States, and in the U.S. itself this usage is almost universal, with any other use of the term requiring specification of the subject under discussion.
The word can be used as both a noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
and an adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
. In adjectival use, it is generally understood to mean "of or relating to the United States"; for example, "Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
was an American singer" or "the American President gave a speech today." In noun form, it generally means U.S. citizen or national
United States nationality law
Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the United States Constitution expressly gives the United States Congress the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. The Immigration and Naturalization Act sets forth the legal requirements for the acquisition of, and divestiture from, citizenship of...
(see Names for U.S. citizens). The noun is rarely used in American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
to refer to people not connected to the United States. When used with a grammatical qualifier
Grammatical modifier
In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure; the removal of the modifier typically doesn't affect the grammaticality of the sentence....
, the adjective American can mean "of or relating to the Americas," as in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n or Indigenous American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, as in "American Spanish
Spanish dialects and varieties
Spanish dialects and varieties are the regional variants of the Spanish language, some of which are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar....
dialects and pronunciation differ by country", or the name of the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
. A third use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, for instance, "In the 16th century, many Americans died from imported diseases during the European conquest".
Other languages
The SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
languages use cognates of the word "American", in denoting "U.S. citizen". In Spanish, americano denotes geographic and cultural origin in the New World, as well as less frequently a U.S. national; the adjective and noun, denoting a U.S. national, estadounidense (United States person), derives from Estados Unidos de América (United States of America). Such usage is slightly more descriptive than "American", but also not sufficiently specific to the United States of America, since it would be equally applicable to citizens of Mexico, which is officially named Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States). The Spanish term norteamericano (North American), is frequently used to refer things and persons from the United States, but this usage is not accurate, because the term can also denote things and persons from Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Bermuda and St Pierre and Miquelon.
The Spanish words estadounidense (United States person), yanqui (Yankee), and gringo
Gringo
Gringo is a slang Spanish and Portuguese word used in Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, to denote foreigners, often from the United States. The term can be applied to someone who is actually a foreigner, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into...
are Mexican, Central American, Caribbean, South American and European Spanish usages denoting U.S. things and persons. In personal denotation, "gringo" means estadounidense, in particular, and anglophones in general, and, linguistically, any speech not Spanish, i.e. "She is speaking gringo, not Spanish". Cognate usages may cause cultural friction between U.S. nationals and Latin Americans who object to American English's exclusionary denotations of American.
Portuguese has americano, denoting both a person or thing from the Americas and a U.S. national. For referring specifically to a U.S. national and things, the words used are estadunidense (also spelled estado-unidense) (United States person), from Estados Unidos da América, and ianque (Yankee), but the term most often used is norte-americano, even though it could, as with its Spanish equivalent, in theory apply to Canadians, Mexicans, etc., as well. In French, étasunien, from États-Unis d'Amérique, distinguishes U.S. things and persons from the adjective américain, which denotes persons and things from the United States but may also refer to the Americas; likewise, the German usages U.S.-amerikanisch and U.S.-Amerikaner observe said cultural distinction, solely denoting U.S. things and people. It is important to note that these are "politically correct" terms and that in normal parlance, the adjective "American" and its direct cognates are almost always used unless the context does not render the nationality of the person clear. For example, the word "Amerika" in German has a one-to-one equivalence to its meaning in modern English: it may denote North America, South America, or both, and in some instances refers to the United States.
Chinese has in which the first element sounds like the accented second syllable in "America" (and the second element means "nation").
History of the word
Martin Waldseemüller
Martin Waldseemüller was a German cartographer...
's deriving it from Americus Vespucius, the Latinised version of Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
's name, the Italian merchant and cartographer who explored South America's east coast and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
sea in the early 16th century. Later, his published letters were the basis of Waldseemüller's 1507 map
Waldseemüller map
The Waldseemüller map, Universalis Cosmographia, is a printed wall map of the world by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, originally published in April 1507. It is known as the first map to use the name "America". The map is drafted on a modification of Ptolemy's second projection, expanded...
, which is the first usage of America. (See )
In 1886, Jules Marcou
Jules Marcou
Jules Marcou was an eminent Swiss-American geologist.He was born at Salins, in the département of Jura, in France....
said Vespucci renamed himself from Alberigo Vespucci (Albericus Vespucius) to Amerigo Vespucci after meeting the native inhabitants of the eponymous Amerrique mountain ranges of Nicaragua that connect North America and South America, an important geographic feature of New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
maps and charts. Moreover, there is the 1908 theory that America derives from Richard Amerike
Richard Amerike
Richard ap Meryk, Anglicised to Richard Amerike was a wealthy English merchant, royal customs officer and sheriff, of Welsh descent. He was the principal owner of the Matthew, the ship sailed by John Cabot during his voyage of exploration to North America in 1497...
of Bristol, England, financier of John Cabot
John Cabot
John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the continent of North America since the Norse Vikings in the eleventh century...
's 1497 expedition. Cabot is believed the first Western European on the mainland. In the event, the adjective American subsequently denotes the New World's peoples and things.
16th-century European usage of American denoted the native inhabitants of the New World. The earliest recorded use of this term in English is in Thomas Hacket's 1568 translation of André Thévet
André Thévet
André de Thevet was a French Franciscan priest, explorer, cosmographer and writer who travelled to Brazil in the 16th century...
's book on France Antarctique
France Antarctique
France Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio...
; Thévet himself had referred to the natives as Ameriques. In the following century the term was extended to European settlers and their descendants in the Americas. The earliest recorded use of this term in English dates to 1648, in Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage (clergyman)
Thomas Gage was an English clergyman.He was the son of the English Catholic gentleman John Gage, from 1622 a baronet, and his wife Margaret...
's The English-American: A New Survet of the West Indies. In English, "American" was used especially for people in the British America
British America
For American people of British descent, see British American.British America is the anachronistic term used to refer to the territories under the control of the Crown or Parliament in present day North America , Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana...
, and came to be applied to citizens of the United States when the country was formed. The Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
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. The official name of the country was established on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met briefly during 1774,...
adopted the Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that legally established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution...
, the first of which says, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America' ". The confederation 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." Common short forms and abbreviations are the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., and America. Colloquial versions are the U.S. of A. and the States. The term Columbia (from the Columbus surname), was a popular name for the U.S. and for the entire geographic Americas; its usage is restricted to the District of Columbia name. Moreover, the womanly personification of Columbia appears in some official documents, including editions of the U.S. dollar.
In the Federalist Papers
Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788...
, Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
and James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
use American with two different meanings, political and geographic; "the American republic" in Federalist Paper 51 and in Federalist Paper 70, and, in Federalist Paper 24, Hamilton's American usage denotes the lands beyond the U.S.'s political borders:
United States President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's farewell in 1796 says: "The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation."
Originally, the name "the United States" was plural—"the United States are"—a usage found in the U.S. Constitution's Thirteenth Amendment
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On...
(1865), but its current common usage is singular—"the United States is". The plural is set in the idiom "these United States".
Before the Constitutional Convention, several country names were proffered, the most popular being "Columbia". The problems of "the United States of America" as a name (long, awkward, imprecise) were discussed; the Constitution ignores the matter, using "the United States of America" and "the United States". The name "Colombia" (derived from Christopher Columbus; Sp: Cristóbal Colón, It: Cristoforo Colombo), was proposed by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda
Francisco de Miranda
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda Ravelo y Rodríguez de Espinoza , commonly known as Francisco de Miranda , was a Venezuelan revolutionary...
to denote the New World—especially Spain's and Portugal's American territories and colonies; it was used in the country names Republic of Columbia
Gran Colombia
Gran Colombia is a name used today for the state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. This short-lived republic included the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru and northwest Brazil. The...
and the United States of Colombia
United States of Colombia
The United States of Colombia was the name adopted in 1861 through the Rionegro Constitution for the nation which had been known as the Republic of New Granada since the dissolution of the federation of Gran Colombia in 1830-1831....
.
Early official U.S. documents betray inconsistent usage; the 1778 Treaty of Alliance
Treaty of Alliance (1778)
The Treaty of Alliance, also called The Treaty of Alliance with France, was a defensive alliance between France and the United States of America, formed in the midst of the American Revolutionary War, which promised military support in case of attack by British forces indefinitely into the future...
with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
uses "the United States of North America" in the first sentence, then uses "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 the Barbary States contains the usages "the United States of North America", "citizens of the United States", and "American Citizens".
Semantic divergence among Anglophones did not affect the Spanish colonies. In 1801, the document titled Letter to American Spaniards—published in French (1799), in Spanish (1801), and in English (1808)—might have influenced Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
's Act of Independence
Venezuelan Declaration of Independence
The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by a congress of Venezuelan provinces on July 5, 1811 through which Venezuelans made the decision to break away from the Spanish Crown in order to establish a new nation based on the premises of equality of individuals, abolition of...
and its 1811 constitution.
The Latter-day Saints' Articles of Faith
Articles of Faith
Articles of faith are sets of beliefs usually found in creeds, sometimes numbered, and often beginning with "We believe...", which attempt to more or less define the fundamental theology of a given religion, and especially in the Christian Church....
refer to the American continent as where they are to build Zion. The Old Catholic Encyclopedia's usage of America is as "the Western Continent or the New World". It discusses American republics, ranging from the U.S. to "the republic of Mexico, the Central American republics of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Leon, and Panama; the Antillian republics of Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Cuba, and the South American republics of Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, the Argentine, and Chile".
Usage at the United Nations
Use of the term American for U.S. nationals is common in United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. The Secretary General refers to people from the United States as Americans, as has the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The UN has referred to financial markets in the United States as "American financial markets."
American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
is a recognized territorial name at the United Nations.
Spain and Hispanic America
The use of American as a national demonymDemonym
A demonym , also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality. A demonym is usually – though not always – derived from the name of the locality; thus, the demonym for the people of England is English, and the demonym for the people of Italy is Italian, yet, in english, the one...
for U.S. nationals is challenged, primarily by Latin Americans. Many Spanish speakers in Latin America use the term estadounidense ("United-Statesian") rather than americano. The dictionary of Real Academia Española
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
in 1992 did not include the alternative from the United States as one of the meanings of americano.
The Diccionario de la Lengua Española
Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española
The Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española or DRAE is the most authoritative dictionary of the Spanish language. It is produced, edited, and published by the Real Academia Española ; the first edition was published in 1780...
(Dictionary of the Spanish Language) published by the Real Academia Española
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
(Royal Spanish Academy), defines estadounidense (United Statesian) as "someone or something from or relating to the United States", the common Spanish usage for U.S. people and things. People originating from, or who have lived in, the Western Hemisphere might be called americanos.
Moreover, the Royal Spanish Academy advises against using americanos exclusively for U.S. nationals:
English translation:
Canada
Prior to ConfederationCanadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
in 1867, the word "Canadian" referred only to residents of the colony of Canada
Canada, New France
Canada was the name of the French colony that once stretched along the St. Lawrence River; the other colonies of New France were Acadia, Louisiana and Newfoundland. Canada, the most developed colony of New France, was divided into three districts, each with its own government: Quebec,...
, which consisted of the territory of modern Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. The term did not apply to residents of the colonies of New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
or Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
. Collectively, the British colonies were known as British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
, and their residents referred to themselves as "British Americans." Since the War of 1812, the term "American" acquired a pejorative context within Canada. Even since the BNA Act of 1867, which defines the word Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in its modern context, the pejorative context of the term "American" remains widespread.
Modern Canadians typically refer to people from the United States as "Americans", though they seldom refer to the United States as "America", using the terms "the United States", "the U.S.", or (informally) "the States" instead. Canadians rarely apply the term "American" to themselves – some Canadians resent being referred to as Americans because of mistaken assumptions that they are U.S. citizens or an inability, particularly of people overseas, to distinguish Canadian English
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
and American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
accents
Accent (linguistics)
In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...
. Some Canadians have protested the use of American as a national demonym. People of U.S. ethnic origin in Canada are categorized as "American (U.S.)" by Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada is the Canadian federal government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. Its headquarters is in Ottawa....
for purposes of census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
counts.
Portugal and Brazil
Generally, americano denotes "U.S. citizen" in PortugalPortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. Usage of americano to exclusively denote people and things of the U.S. is discouraged by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Lisbon Academy of Sciences), because the specific word estado-unidense (also estadunidense) clearly denotes a person from the United States. The term currently used by the Portuguese press is norte-americano.
In Brazil, the term americano (American) is used to address both that which pertains to the American continent and, in current speech, that which pertains to the U.S.A. (the particular meaning is deduced from context). Alternatively the term "norte-americano" (North American) is also used in more informal contexts while "estadunidense" (U.S. citizen or thing) is the preferred form in academia. Use of the three terms is common in schools, government and media. The term "América" (America) on the other hand is used almost exclusively for the continent as the U.S.A. are called "Estados Unidos" (United States) or "Estados Unidos da América" (United States of America), often abbreviated to "EUA" (USA).
The Getting Through Customs website advises business travellers not to use "in America" as a U.S. reference when conducting business in Brazil.
United States
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
reports 7.3 percent of U.S. residents to be of "United States or American" ancestry based on responses to the 2000 Census long-form questionnaire (1 in 6 sample). Discrete responses of United States and American or an ambiguous response or a state-name response (excluding Hawaii) were aggregated as "United States or American". Distinct racial, ethnic, and cultural groups such as "American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
", "Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
", "African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
", and "Hawaiian
Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
" were coded separately.
The word "American" appears in the name of the U.S. territory of American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
. American Samoa began using the word American in its title when it became a U.S. territory.
American in other contexts
American in the Associated Press StylebookAP Stylebook
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, usually called the AP Stylebook, is a style and usage guide used by newspapers and in the news industry in the United States...
(1994) is 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, the AP Stylebook indicates that "United States" must "be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective".
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: The Official Style Guide Used by the Writers and Editors of the World's Most Authoritative Newspaper is a style guide created in 1950 by editors at the newspaper and revised in 1974 and 1999 by Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly. The revised and...
(1999) America entry 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 the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
and Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
frequently use America to refer to the United States, and American to denote something or someone from the United States.
American in international law
At least one international law uses "U.S. citizen" in defining a citizen of the United States rather than American citizen such as this excerpt from the North American Free Trade AgreementNorth American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
:
Many other international treaties use the term American and American citizen. The Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
Treaty of Amity protects Americans and American companies. The Treaty between the United States and the Dey
Dey
Dey was the title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers and Tripoli under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 onwards...
of the Regency of Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
on March 7, 1796 protected American citizens. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty between France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and United States referred to American citizens. The 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce
Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States-Japan)
The , also called Harris Treaty, between the United States and Japan was signed at the Ryōsen-ji in Shimoda on July 29, 1858. It opened the ports of Yokohama and four other Japanese cities to American trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among other stipulations.-The Treaty:The...
between the United States and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
protected American citizens and also used the term American. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
between Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and the U.S. uses the term American Government to refer to the United States, and American tribunals to refer to U.S. courts. The 1825 treaty between the United States and the Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
tribe refers to American citizen. The Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1898)
The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was signed on December 10, 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, and came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the ratifications were exchanged....
ending the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, known as Guerra Hispano-Estadounidense in Spanish, uses the word American in reference to United States troops.
American in U.S. commercial regulation
Products that are labelled, advertised, and marketed in the U.S. as "American Made" must be "all or virtually all made in the U.S." The Federal Trade Commission, to prevent deception of customers and unfair competition, considers an unqualified claim of "American Made" to expressly claim exclusive manufacture in the U.S. "The FTC Act gives the Commission the power to bring law enforcement actions against false or misleading claims that a product is of U.S. origin."U.S. national in other languages
EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
speakers may use the term American to refer to either inhabitants of the Americas or to U.S. nationals. They generally have other terms specific to U.S. nationals, such as German US-Amerikaner, French étatsunien, Japanese 米国人 beikokujin, Arabic أمريكاني amriikaanii (as opposed to the more-common أمريكي amriikii), and Italian statunitense, but these may be less common than the term American. Adjectives derived from "United States" (such as United Statesian) are awkward in English, but similar constructions exist in Spanish (estadounidense), Portuguese (estado-unidense, estadunidense), Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
(yhdysvaltalainen: from Yhdysvallat, United States), as well as in French (états-unien), and Italian (statunitense).
In Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, at least one reference reports estadounidense, estado-unidense or estadunidense are preferred to americano for U.S. nationals; the latter tends to refer to any resident of the Americas and not necessarily from the United States. In Portuguese, estado-unidense(or estadunidense) is the recommended form by language regulators but today it is less frequently used than americano and norte-americano.
Latin Americans also may employ the term norteamericano (North American), which conflates the United States, Canada and Mexico.
With the 1994 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
, the following words were used to label the United States Section of that organization: in French, étatsunien; in Spanish, estadounidense. In English the adjective used to indicate relation to the United States is U.S.
The word Gringo
Gringo
Gringo is a slang Spanish and Portuguese word used in Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, to denote foreigners, often from the United States. The term can be applied to someone who is actually a foreigner, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into...
is widely used in parts of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
in reference to U.S. residents, often in a pejorative way but not necessarily. Yanqui (Yankee
Yankee
The term Yankee has several interrelated and often pejorative meanings, usually referring to people originating in the northeastern United States, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.The...
) is also very common in some regions, but it is usually pejorative. Throughout Latin America the word Gringo is also used for any foreigner from the United States, Canada, or Europe, however the true sense of the word is any foreigner.
In other languages, however, there is no possibility for confusion. Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
měiguórén for example, is derived from a word for the United States, měiguó, where měi is an abbreviation for Yàměilìjiā "America" and guó is "country". The name for the continent of America is měizhōu, from měi plus zhōu "continent". Thus a měizhōurén is an American in the generic sense, and a měiguórén is an American in the U.S. sense. Similar words are found in Korean and Vietnamese. In Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
, the more naturalized word Marekani means specifically the United States, and Wamarekani are U.S. nationals, whereas the international form Amerika refers to the continent, and Waamerika are the inhabitants thereof. Likewise, the Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
word Ameriko refers only to the continent. For the country there is the term Usono, cognate with the English word Usonia
Usonia
Usonia was a word used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings...
later popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright. Thus a citizen of the United States is an usonano, whereas an amerikano is an inhabitant of the Americas.
Alternative adjectives for U.S. citizens
There are a number of alternatives to the demonymDemonym
A demonym , also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality. A demonym is usually – though not always – derived from the name of the locality; thus, the demonym for the people of England is English, and the demonym for the people of Italy is Italian, yet, in english, the one...
"American" (a citizen of the United States) that do not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas. One uncommon alternative is "Usonian", which usually describes a certain style of residential architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
. Over the years, many other alternatives have also surfaced, but most have long fallen into disuse and obscurity. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage
Merriam-Webster
Merriam–Webster, which was originally the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language .Merriam-Webster Inc. has been a...
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." Nevertheless, no alternative to "American" is common.
See also
- People of the United StatesPeople of the United StatesThe people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
- Americas (terminology)Americas (terminology)The Americas, also known as America, are the lands of the western hemisphere, composed of numerous entities and regions variably defined by geography, politics, and culture....