(Redirected from Alternative words for American)
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.
History of the word
British Map of America in
1744.
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
The Naming of America: Vespucci's Good Name ) 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.
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.
10Some 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 (
USA)" 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.)
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.
''American'' in other contexts
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), () (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
Main articles: Adjectives for U.S. citizens
There are a number of alternatives to the
demonym "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. 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."
[17] Nevertheless, with the exception of "U.S." or "U.S. citizen", no alternative to "American" has been seriously considered.
[18]
References
1. The Federalist no. 51 James Madison
2. The Federalist no. 70 Alexander Hamilton
3. The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered, , Alexander, Hamilton, The Federalist Papers,
4. http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/2002/may02/psrmay02.shtml
5.
The Barbary Treaties: Treaty of Peace and Amity
6. La “Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos”, una carta que recorrió muchos caminos...
7. Names for Americans, , H. L., Mencken, American Speech, 1947
8. Luxury Link Travel Guide
9. 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. On the difficulty of indicating nativity in the United States, , Miriam Allen, de Ford, American Speech, 1927
12. Clinton promises to lobby for more aid Suyapa Carias
13. Clinton Hails U.S. Efforts in Storm Zone Charles Babington
14. Clinton surveys hurricane relief efforts in Central America
15. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/madeusa.htm
16.
Reta Vortaro: Usono
17. EDline Vol. 4, no. 9, American versus US
18. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, , , , , ,
See also
★
Americas (terminology)
★
Alternative words for British
★
Adjectives for U.S. citizens
Scholarly sources
★
The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture, , Irving L., Allen, Columbia University Press, 1983,
★
Culture bound: Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching, , J.C., Condon, Cambridge University Press, 1986, Chapter 8: “…So near the United States”.
★
Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States, , Philip H., Herbst, , 1997, ISBN 1-877864-97-8
External links
★
The trouble with Americans John Ryle
★
''Diccionario de la Lengua Española'' entry for ''americano''
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