Information about American (word)
Use of the word American in the English language differs between historical, geographical and political contexts. It derives from America, a term originally referring to all of the New World (also called the Americas), and its usage has evolved over time.
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 of America"; 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. When used with a grammatical qualifier the adjective American can mean "of or relating to the Americas," as in Latin American or Indigenous American. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, even when used in the United States, as in "American Spanish dialects and pronunciation differ by country," or "The ancient American civilizations of the pre-Columbian period were advanced in mathematics and astronomy." A third use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for instance, "In the 15th century, many Americans died from European diseases during the Spanish Conquest".
French, German, and Italian speakers may use cognates of the word "American" to refer specifically to United States citizens, as in English, or to the New World, as in Spanish. In Spanish, americano often refers to the entire New World; the adjective and noun describing the United States is estadounidense, deriving from Estados Unidos de América, the United States of America. Also, the terms estadounidense, norteamericano and gringo are popularly used in some Central American and South American countries to describe the people of the United States. The differences in usage of the cognates cause some cultural friction between U.S. nationals and Latin Americans; Latin Americans, in particular, may object to the primary English usage of American, feeling it unfairly appropriates the term.
Various theories exist for the derivation of the word America. The most commonly expounded theory is that German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller derived it from the Latinized version of the name of Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vespucius), an Italian merchant and cartographer whose exploratory journeys in the early 1500s brought him to the eastern coastline of South America and to the Caribbean. Some of Vespucci's letters were published, and they were the basis of Waldseemüller's 1507 map, which was the first to use the word America. (See Cohen, Jonathan. The Naming of America: Vespucci's Good Name. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.) In 1886, Jules Marcou states that Vespucci changed his Christian name of Alberigo Vespucci (Albericus Vespucius) to Amerigo Vespucci only after coming into contact with natives from the eponymous Amerrique ranges of Nicaragua , which connect North America to South America, an important geographical feature of New World maps and charts. The newest theory from 1908 suggests America derives from the name of one Richard Amerike of Bristol in England, financier of John Cabot's expedition in 1497. Cabot is believed to be the first Western European to set foot on the mainland. However it came into existence, the term American was subsequently used as an adjective describing the New World and its native people.
In the 16th century, the word American was used by Europeans for the indigenous inhabitants of the New World; soon it was extended to describe newly settled Europeans, namely Spaniards and their mixed progeny. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation proclaimed a new country, "The United States of America". The Articles of Confederation state the following above the signatories: "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." Divergence in usage becomes evident because only the word America, not the United States, is used in this section.
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison employ two different meanings for American in the Federalist Papers. For example, Madison and Hamilton write of "the American republic" in Federalist Paper 51[1] and 70 respectively.[2] In contrast, Hamilton uses American to describe land outside the political borders of the United States of America in Federalist Paper 24[3]
In 1796, during George Washington's Farewell address, the president is quoted as saying "The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation."[4]
Some proposals for a different name for the country were made prior to the Constitutional Convention, with the most popular name being "Columbia". The problems with the name "the United States of America" (its length, awkwardness, vague and imprecise meaning) were known and discussed at the time, but the Constitution did not address the topic, using both "the United States of America" and "the United States" interchangeably.
In contrast, the word "Colombia" comes from the name of Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish, Cristoforo Colombo in Italian). It was conceived by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to the New World, especially to all American territories and colonies under Spanish and Portuguese rule, and which eventually led to the short-lived United States of Colombia to distinguish it from the United States of America.
Peculiar inconsistencies are evident in official documents shortly after the United States became a sovereign nation. The 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France uses the term "the United States of North America" in the first sentence, but subsequently uses just "the said United States". Both "the United States of America" and "the United States of North America" came from the earlier terms "the United Colonies of America" and "the United Colonies of North America".
The Treaty of Peace and Amity, Signed at Algiers September 5, 1795,[5] is an agreement with "the United States of North America" which uses both "citizens of the United States" and "American Citizens" in the document.
Semantic divergence in the Anglophone world would not affect the Spanish colonies. In 1801, a document titled "Letter to American Spaniards" is believed to have directly influenced the Act of Independence and the 1811 Constitution of Venezuela.[6] This document was published in French, Spanish, and English in 1799, 1801 and 1808, respectively.
The LDS Articles of Faith make reference to the American continent as the place where Zion is to be built [1].
The Old Catholic Encyclopedia refers to America as "the Western Continent or the New World". It discusses a wide variety of American republics ranging from the United States of America to the "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." [2].
Since the late 18th century American has been used in both the historical continental sense, and to refer to the United States of America. Though the English and Spanish cognates have multiple, nearly identical meanings today, the common unqualified form in the respective language often differs.
In Latin America, the slippage between the word American as a relation to the landmass of the Western Hemisphere and American exclusively to refer to U.S. nationals is seen as beneficial to the advances of United States foreign policy in Latin America; namely American exceptionalism or a diplomatic renewal of the Monroe Doctrine depending on contemporary political interests. Also, in American Spanish, the word estadounidense is used to describe U.S. nationals, and the use of the word American to refer to only U.S. nationals is seen as culturally aggressive and imperialistic in nature.
In Canada, their southern neighbour is seldom referred to as "America", with "the United States", "the U.S.", or (informally) "the States" used instead [10], although "American" is the usual demonym in modern Canadian English. Modern 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.<ref name="oxfcdn" />Some Canadians protested the use of American as a national demonym in the past.[11] When Canadians need to refer to the larger continental context, North American (or North and South American), not "American", is the term in current usage.
People of U.S. ethnic origin in Canada are categorized as "American (U.S.)" by Statistics Canada for purposes of census counts. [3]
In Quebec French, one will occasionally see the term étatsunisien ("Unitedstatesian", analogous to the Spanish estadounidense) used in place of the more common "américain."
However, the usage of americano in specific reference to the United States is not recommended by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Lisbon Science Academy, which regulates language use) because the word estado-unidense (estadunidense, alternative spelling) clearly identifies a United Stater.
Brazilians refer to themselves as "americanos" in general and "latino-americanos" in particular. However the word "América" has in the past 15 years become more popular as synonymous with "United States of America" in big urban centers more influenced by United States culture, especially after the Brazilian immigration boom to US in mid-1990s. In many parts of the country "norte-americano" usually refers to someone from the United States, while "América" is still used to refer to the Americas.
The United States Census Bureau considers 7.3% of the residents of the United States to be of "United States or American" ancestry [4] based on responses to the 2000 Census long form questionnaire (1 in 6 sample). Most of these were in the Bureau's South Region (see map at right), which has a high percentage of people who trace their ancestry to the colonial origins of the United States but often lack records of the specific countries of their ancestors' origins. Responses of United States or American alone, or with an ambiguous response or state name (excluding Hawai'i) were aggregated as "United States or American" for most purposes. Distinct groups such as "American Indian", "Mexican American", "African American", and "Hawaiian" were coded separately because of overlap with the short form questionnaire data (which covers the entire population) on race and Hispanic/Latino ethnicity.
Usage of the word can vary in diplomatic situations. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is quoted as saying, "…todos somos americanos" during a speech in Honduras.[12] His quotation is translated as "We are all Americans" by the Washington Post[13] and CNN.[14]
There is also some dispute about the meaning of American in the Monroe Doctrine to this day.
The Associated Press Stylebook (1994) defines American 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." It also advises that United States should "be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective."
In the entry for America, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (1999) says that 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."
In Spanish, 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; English spoken in Latin America often makes this distinction as well. In Portuguese, estado-unidense is the recommended form by language regulators but today it is less frequently used than americano, which has replaced the popular (and incorrect) norte-americano usage.
Latin Americans also may employ the term norteamericano (North American), which itself conflates the United States and Canada. However, this term may also refer to anyone from the North American continent, which also includes Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Worldwide, speakers of Esperanto refer to the United States of America with the term "Usono", which is borrowed from Frank Lloyd Wright's word Usonia[16]. (Others suggest that it is derived from the initials for "Unuiĝintaj Ŝtatoj de Nordameriko" -- UŜN, pronounced as "oo-SHO-no".) Thus a citizen or national of the United States is referred to as an "usonano". The Esperantist terms for North Americans and for South Americans, by continent rather than country, are Nordamerikano and Sudamerikano, respectively.
Adjectives derived from "United States" (such as United Statian) appear awkward in English, but similar constructions exist in Spanish (estadounidense or estadinense), Portuguese (estado-unidense, estadunidense) and Finnish (yhdysvaltalainen: from Yhdysvallat, United States); and also in French (états-unien) and Italian (statunitense).
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. In Argentina, Uruguay and some regions of Brazil, the word Gringo is also used for any foreigner, not just for U.S. Citizens.
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.
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Latin America (Portuguese and Spanish: América Latina; French: Amérique Latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin (particularly Spanish and Portuguese), are primarily spoken.
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Spanish, Castilian}}}
Writing system: Latin (Spanish variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: —
Spanish (
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Central America (Spanish: Centroamérica or América Central) is a central geographic region of the Americas. It is variably defined either as the southern portion of North America, which connects with South America on the southeast, or a region of
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South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie
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Latin America (Portuguese and Spanish: América Latina; French: Amérique Latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin (particularly Spanish and Portuguese), are primarily spoken.
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South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie
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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 of America"; 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. When used with a grammatical qualifier the adjective American can mean "of or relating to the Americas," as in Latin American or Indigenous American. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, even when used in the United States, as in "American Spanish dialects and pronunciation differ by country," or "The ancient American civilizations of the pre-Columbian period were advanced in mathematics and astronomy." A third use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for instance, "In the 15th century, many Americans died from European diseases during the Spanish Conquest".
French, German, and Italian speakers may use cognates of the word "American" to refer specifically to United States citizens, as in English, or to the New World, as in Spanish. In Spanish, americano often refers to the entire New World; the adjective and noun describing the United States is estadounidense, deriving from Estados Unidos de América, the United States of America. Also, the terms estadounidense, norteamericano and gringo are popularly used in some Central American and South American countries to describe the people of the United States. The differences in usage of the cognates cause some cultural friction between U.S. nationals and Latin Americans; Latin Americans, in particular, may object to the primary English usage of American, feeling it unfairly appropriates the term.
History of the word
Various theories exist for the derivation of the word America. The most commonly expounded theory is that German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller derived it from the Latinized version of the name of Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vespucius), an Italian merchant and cartographer whose exploratory journeys in the early 1500s brought him to the eastern coastline of South America and to the Caribbean. Some of Vespucci's letters were published, and they were the basis of Waldseemüller's 1507 map, which was the first to use the word America. (See Cohen, Jonathan. The Naming of America: Vespucci's Good Name. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.) In 1886, Jules Marcou states that Vespucci changed his Christian name of Alberigo Vespucci (Albericus Vespucius) to Amerigo Vespucci only after coming into contact with natives from the eponymous Amerrique ranges of Nicaragua , which connect North America to South America, an important geographical feature of New World maps and charts. The newest theory from 1908 suggests America derives from the name of one Richard Amerike of Bristol in England, financier of John Cabot's expedition in 1497. Cabot is believed to be the first Western European to set foot on the mainland. However it came into existence, the term American was subsequently used as an adjective describing the New World and its native people.
In the 16th century, the word American was used by Europeans for the indigenous inhabitants of the New World; soon it was extended to describe newly settled Europeans, namely Spaniards and their mixed progeny. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation proclaimed a new country, "The United States of America". The Articles of Confederation state the following above the signatories: "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." Divergence in usage becomes evident because only the word America, not the United States, is used in this section.
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison employ two different meanings for American in the Federalist Papers. For example, Madison and Hamilton write of "the American republic" in Federalist Paper 51[1] and 70 respectively.[2] In contrast, Hamilton uses American to describe land outside the political borders of the United States of America in Federalist Paper 24[3]
Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe, yet there are various considerations that warn us against an excess of confidence or security. On one side of us, and stretching far into our rear, are growing settlements subject to the dominion of Britain. On the other side, and extending to meet the British settlements, are colonies and establishments subject to the dominion of Spain. This situation and the vicinity of the West India Islands, belonging to these two powers create between them, in respect to their American possessions and in relation to us, a common interest.
In 1796, during George Washington's Farewell address, the president is quoted as saying "The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation."[4]
Some proposals for a different name for the country were made prior to the Constitutional Convention, with the most popular name being "Columbia". The problems with the name "the United States of America" (its length, awkwardness, vague and imprecise meaning) were known and discussed at the time, but the Constitution did not address the topic, using both "the United States of America" and "the United States" interchangeably.
In contrast, the word "Colombia" comes from the name of Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish, Cristoforo Colombo in Italian). It was conceived by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to the New World, especially to all American territories and colonies under Spanish and Portuguese rule, and which eventually led to the short-lived United States of Colombia to distinguish it from the United States of America.
Peculiar inconsistencies are evident in official documents shortly after the United States became a sovereign nation. The 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France uses the term "the United States of North America" in the first sentence, but subsequently uses just "the said United States". Both "the United States of America" and "the United States of North America" came from the earlier terms "the United Colonies of America" and "the United Colonies of North America".
The Treaty of Peace and Amity, Signed at Algiers September 5, 1795,[5] is an agreement with "the United States of North America" which uses both "citizens of the United States" and "American Citizens" in the document.
Semantic divergence in the Anglophone world would not affect the Spanish colonies. In 1801, a document titled "Letter to American Spaniards" is believed to have directly influenced the Act of Independence and the 1811 Constitution of Venezuela.[6] This document was published in French, Spanish, and English in 1799, 1801 and 1808, respectively.
The LDS Articles of Faith make reference to the American continent as the place where Zion is to be built [1].
The Old Catholic Encyclopedia refers to America as "the Western Continent or the New World". It discusses a wide variety of American republics ranging from the United States of America to the "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." [2].
Since the late 18th century American has been used in both the historical continental sense, and to refer to the United States of America. Though the English and Spanish cognates have multiple, nearly identical meanings today, the common unqualified form in the respective language often differs.
Disagreement over meaning
The use of American as a national demonym for U.S. citizens has been frequently challenged primarily by Latin Americans.[7]Political-cultural views
Latin America
Latin Americans consider everyone in the Americas to be americanos. Use of the word to refer specifically to U.S. citizens may be seen as ignorant, arrogant, incorrect, or even self-serving depending on the context. The same sentiments may apply to the use of the word American in English. The Luxury Link travel guide[8] advises U.S. nationals traveling in Mexico to avoid referring to themselves as Americans, as Mexicans consider themselves Americans. The Getting Through Customs website advises business travelers not to use "in America" as a reference to the United States when doing business in Brazil.[9]In Latin America, the slippage between the word American as a relation to the landmass of the Western Hemisphere and American exclusively to refer to U.S. nationals is seen as beneficial to the advances of United States foreign policy in Latin America; namely American exceptionalism or a diplomatic renewal of the Monroe Doctrine depending on contemporary political interests. Also, in American Spanish, the word estadounidense is used to describe U.S. nationals, and the use of the word American to refer to only U.S. nationals is seen as culturally aggressive and imperialistic in nature.
Spain
In Spain, people who have lived in the Western Hemisphere but now live in Spain may be called americanos. The Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Dictionary of the Spanish Language) published by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), also gives estadounidense (United Stater) as one of the definitions of americano, meaning "someone from the United States or relating to the United States". However, most Spaniards, being influenced by the European media, still call U.S nationals "Americans"".Canada
Prior to Confederation 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." Only after 1867 did the term "Canadian" come to describe all the residents of the Dominion of Canada and the word "American" come to be seen a semi-pejorative.In Canada, their southern neighbour is seldom referred to as "America", with "the United States", "the U.S.", or (informally) "the States" used instead [10], although "American" is the usual demonym in modern Canadian English. Modern 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.<ref name="oxfcdn" />Some Canadians protested the use of American as a national demonym in the past.[11] When Canadians need to refer to the larger continental context, North American (or North and South American), not "American", is the term in current usage.
People of U.S. ethnic origin in Canada are categorized as "American (U.S.)" by Statistics Canada for purposes of census counts. [3]
In Quebec French, one will occasionally see the term étatsunisien ("Unitedstatesian", analogous to the Spanish estadounidense) used in place of the more common "américain."
Portugal and Brazil
Americano is generally used to refer to United States citizens only. Currently in Portugal Brazilians are always called brasileiros and never americanos, although the common usage was different in the 19th century.However, the usage of americano in specific reference to the United States is not recommended by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Lisbon Science Academy, which regulates language use) because the word estado-unidense (estadunidense, alternative spelling) clearly identifies a United Stater.
Brazilians refer to themselves as "americanos" in general and "latino-americanos" in particular. However the word "América" has in the past 15 years become more popular as synonymous with "United States of America" in big urban centers more influenced by United States culture, especially after the Brazilian immigration boom to US in mid-1990s. In many parts of the country "norte-americano" usually refers to someone from the United States, while "América" is still used to refer to the Americas.
United States
)
"United States or American" ancestry by county, per 2000 U.S. Census. (Dark colors represent higher relative density.)
Usage of the word can vary in diplomatic situations. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is quoted as saying, "…todos somos americanos" during a speech in Honduras.[12] His quotation is translated as "We are all Americans" by the Washington Post[13] and CNN.[14]
There is also some dispute about the meaning of American in the Monroe Doctrine to this day.
American in other contexts
){kind=small} | This article or section may deal primarily with the U.S. and may not present a worldwide view. |
The Associated Press Stylebook (1994) defines American 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." It also advises that United States should "be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective."
In the entry for America, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (1999) says that 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."
American in international law
In legal circles a citizen of the United States is usually referred to as a U.S. citizen, not an American citizen, though the latter term is common in popular usage. The following excerpt is from the North American Free Trade Agreement:American in U.S. law, generally
In the 6th Edition of Black's Law Dictionary, American is defined as "Of or pertaining to the United States." In the two newer editions of the same dictionary there is no entry for American.American in U.S. marketplace regulation
Products labeled, advertised, or marketed in the U.S. as "American Made" must be "all or virtually all made in the U.S." The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in order to prevent deception and unfair competition, considers an unqualified "American Made" claim to be an express claim of U.S. manufacture. "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."[15]U.S. national in other languages
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, popular Portuguese and Russian speakers may use American (Japanese: アメリカ人 roma-ji: amerika-jin), (Russian: американец, американка,) (Mandarin Chinese: pinyin- měiguórén, traditional- 美國人, simplified- 美国人) to refer to U.S. citizens. These languages generally have other terms for U.S. nationals; for example, there is US-Amerikaner in German, étatsunien in French, or statunitense in Italian.In Spanish, 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; English spoken in Latin America often makes this distinction as well. In Portuguese, estado-unidense is the recommended form by language regulators but today it is less frequently used than americano, which has replaced the popular (and incorrect) norte-americano usage.
Latin Americans also may employ the term norteamericano (North American), which itself conflates the United States and Canada. However, this term may also refer to anyone from the North American continent, which also includes Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Worldwide, speakers of Esperanto refer to the United States of America with the term "Usono", which is borrowed from Frank Lloyd Wright's word Usonia[16]. (Others suggest that it is derived from the initials for "Unuiĝintaj Ŝtatoj de Nordameriko" -- UŜN, pronounced as "oo-SHO-no".) Thus a citizen or national of the United States is referred to as an "usonano". The Esperantist terms for North Americans and for South Americans, by continent rather than country, are Nordamerikano and Sudamerikano, respectively.
Adjectives derived from "United States" (such as United Statian) appear awkward in English, but similar constructions exist in Spanish (estadounidense or estadinense), Portuguese (estado-unidense, estadunidense) and Finnish (yhdysvaltalainen: from Yhdysvallat, United States); and also in French (états-unien) and Italian (statunitense).
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. In Argentina, Uruguay and some regions of Brazil, the word Gringo is also used for any foreigner, not just for U.S. Citizens.
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.
Alternative adjectives for U.S. citizens
References
1. ^ James Madison. The Federalist no. 51.
2. ^ Alexander Hamilton. .
3. ^ Hamilton, Alexander. "The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered". The Federalist Papers 24.
4. ^ [5]
5. ^ The Barbary Treaties: Treaty of Peace and Amity.
6. ^ La “Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos”, una carta que recorrió muchos caminos.... (Spanish)
7. ^ Mencken, H. L. (December 1947). "Names for Americans". American Speech 22: 241–256.
8. ^ Luxury Link Travel Guide.
9. ^ Morrison, Terri. Doing business abroad - Brazil.
10. ^ Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J. 1997. Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Toronto: Oxford University Press; p. 36.
11. ^ de Ford, Miriam Allen (April 1927). "On the difficulty of indicating nativity in the United States". American Speech: 315.
12. ^ Carias, Suyapa. "Clinton promises to lobby for more aid", HondurasThisWeek, 15 March 1999.1999">
13. ^ Babington, Charles. "Clinton Hails U.S. Efforts in Storm Zone", Washington Post, 10 March 1999.1999">
14. ^ Clinton surveys hurricane relief efforts in Central America. CNN (9 March 1999).
15. ^ [6]
16. ^ Reta Vortaro: Usono.
17. ^ EDline Vol. 4, no. 9, American versus US.
18. ^ The Columbia Guide to Standard American English.
2. ^ Alexander Hamilton. .
3. ^ Hamilton, Alexander. "The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered". The Federalist Papers 24.
4. ^ [5]
5. ^ The Barbary Treaties: Treaty of Peace and Amity.
6. ^ La “Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos”, una carta que recorrió muchos caminos.... (Spanish)
7. ^ Mencken, H. L. (December 1947). "Names for Americans". American Speech 22: 241–256.
8. ^ Luxury Link Travel Guide.
9. ^ Morrison, Terri. Doing business abroad - Brazil.
10. ^ Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J. 1997. Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Toronto: Oxford University Press; p. 36.
11. ^ de Ford, Miriam Allen (April 1927). "On the difficulty of indicating nativity in the United States". American Speech: 315.
12. ^ Carias, Suyapa. "Clinton promises to lobby for more aid", HondurasThisWeek, 15 March 1999.1999">
13. ^ Babington, Charles. "Clinton Hails U.S. Efforts in Storm Zone", Washington Post, 10 March 1999.1999">
14. ^ Clinton surveys hurricane relief efforts in Central America. CNN (9 March 1999).
15. ^ [6]
16. ^ Reta Vortaro: Usono.
17. ^ EDline Vol. 4, no. 9, American versus US.
18. ^ The Columbia Guide to Standard American English.
See also
Scholarly sources
- Allen, Irving L. (1983). The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Condon, J.C. (1986). in J.M. Valdes: Culture bound: Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 85-93. Chapter 8: “…So near the United States”.
- Herbst, Philip H. (1997). Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States. ISBN 1-877864-97-8.
External links
- Ryle, John. "The trouble with Americans", The Guardian, September 7, 1998.1998">
- Diccionario de la Lengua Española entry for americano
English}}}
Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
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Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
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The New World is one of the names used for the Americas. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively, the Old World).
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Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1] and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.
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Examples
A proper or common noun can co-occur with an article or an attributive adjective. Verbs and adjectives can't. As usual, a `*' in front of an example means that this example is ungrammatical.
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A proper or common noun can co-occur with an article or an attributive adjective. Verbs and adjectives can't. As usual, a `*' in front of an example means that this example is ungrammatical.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Elvis Aaron Presley[1][2] (January 8, 1935–August 16, 1977), was an American singer, musician, actor, writer, and producer. He is a cultural icon, often known as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King".
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U.S. national without being a U.S. citizen. A person whose only connection to the U.S. is through birth in an outlying possession (which as of 2005 is limited to American Samoa and Swains Island), or through descent from a person so born acquires U.S. nationality but not U.S.
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In grammar, a modifier (or qualifier) is a word or sentence element that limits or qualifies another word, a phrase, or a clause. In English, there are two kinds of modifiers: adjectives, which modify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs
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Latin America (Portuguese and Spanish: América Latina; French: Amérique Latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin (particularly Spanish and Portuguese), are primarily spoken.
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indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations
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Spanish dialects and varieties are the regional variants of the Spanish language, some of which are quite divergent from standard written Spanish, which is based on the dialect of the province of Castile.
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The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents.
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indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations
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15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500.
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Events
- 1402: Ottoman and Timurid Empires fight at the Battle of Ankara resulting in Timur's capture of Bayezid I.
- 1402: The conquest of the Canary Islands signals the beginning of the Spanish Empire.
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French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
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German language (Deutsch, ] ) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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Italian}}}
Official status
Official language of: European Union
European Union
Switzerland
San Marino
Vatican City
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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Official status
Official language of: European Union
European Union
Switzerland
San Marino
Vatican City
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common origin. They may occur within a language, such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from the Proto-Indo-European word *sker-, meaning "to cut". They may also occur across languages, e.g.
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Spanish, Castilian}}}
Writing system: Latin (Spanish variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: —
Spanish (
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Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a term in the Spanish and Portuguese languages used in some countries of Latin America to refer to foreigners from different cultures, especially from the United States, but also from Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and
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Central America (Spanish: Centroamérica or América Central) is a central geographic region of the Americas. It is variably defined either as the southern portion of North America, which connects with South America on the southeast, or a region of
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South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie
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Latin America (Portuguese and Spanish: América Latina; French: Amérique Latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin (particularly Spanish and Portuguese), are primarily spoken.
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The word theory has a number of distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion.
In common usage, people often use the word theory to signify a conjecture, an opinion, or a speculation.
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In common usage, people often use the word theory to signify a conjecture, an opinion, or a speculation.
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Martin Waldseemüller (Latin name Martinus Ilacomilus or Hylacomylus, c. 1470 – c. 1521/1522) was a German cartographer. He was born in Freiburg im Breisgau (his mother was from Radolfzell) and studied at the University of Freiburg.
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Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 - February 22, 1512) was an Italian merchant, explorer and cartographer. He played a senior role in two voyages which explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502.
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Anthem
Il Canto degli Italiani
(also known as Fratelli d'Italia)
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Il Canto degli Italiani
(also known as Fratelli d'Italia)
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South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie
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Caribbean (Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe
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Herod_Archelaus
