American (word): Difference between revisions

Use of the word American differs between historical, geographical and political contexts.

The word American, in colloquial English, nearly always means "of or relating to the United States of America". For example, "Elvis Presley was an American singer." or, "The American president gave his speech today..." Other speakers, particularly in Latin America, have objected to this usage, feeling it unfairly appropriates the meaning of "American", which also refers to the American continent.

In the United States, the New World is usually considered to be two continents: North America and South America. The two continents together are described as "The Americas." In Latin America North and South America are considered subcontinents in —and referred to collectively as América.

More formally, the adjective "American" means "of or relating to the Americas" even when used in the United States, though never in a national context. When used as a noun in English, it most frequently is used to mean "a person from the United States." The most similar word in Spanish is the adjective or noun americano, which means "of or relating to the Americas" and "a person from anywhere in the Americas".

American in the Americas

Various theories exist for the derivation of the word America. The most commonly expounded 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. Alternative theories include its derivation from the name of one Richard Amerike of Bristol in England, financier of John Cabot's expedition or from the region of Amerrique in Nicaragua. However it came into existence, the term American was subsequently used as an adjective describing the New World and its native people.

By the 1700s, the word American was used by Europeans for the indigenous habitants of the New World and was extended to describe newly settled Europeans and their mixed progeny. It was not until 1765 that "American" was first used to refer to the British colonists in North America. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed a new country, "The United States of America." At that time America was also used to designate continents in atlases published in Europe. The American Revolution was closely followed in Europe, and the once uniform meaning of the word American gradually diverged through this time into the controversial false friends American and americano.

Controversy over semantic divergence of American

Controversy has arisen over whether this divergent usage is appropriate, or whether the term should only be used as an adjective covering the whole of North America and South America. English language atlases display two continents—"North America" (which includes Central America and the Caribbean) and "South America"—while Spanish language atlases display one continent, "América", divided on the north, center and south.

In the Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America, considerable numbers of people bristle at seeing or hearing the word used in the narrow sense; many advocate a more general and inclusive meaning which parallels the Spanish word América, .

Opponents of the usage of American referring to the United States argue that that usage is inaccurate, historically incorrect, and redolent of perceived imperialism of the United States. Proponents of the usage of American to refer to the United States argue that this usage represents the standard and most common usage of this word in the English language and therefore see no reason to stop using a salient, idiomatic sense of a word. There are other precedents - for example the word British is now more commonly used to refer to someone or something from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and is less frequently used in its original meaning (refering to someone or something from the British Isles as a whole).

Linguistic and philosophical views

Those opposed to attempts to change the language say that essentialism regarding words is an error, and as there is no academy that regulates English, attempts to control the language are futile, because language change, like biological evolution, is a natural process that is not always subject to laws of logic and reason.

Descriptivists argue that the meanings of words are not under the control of any one person or group, there is no one who can issue edicts that America can only refer to geographical continents rather than a country - nor the opposite, and thus arguments about what words should mean are debates that can never have any practical effect on English usage.

Some people describe "American" as a false friend of the Spanish word americano because although the two words share meanings, the most salient sense in each language is different.

Politico-cultural views

At present, the United States of America is the only sovereign nation in the world with the word America in its official name. Additionally, other nations, including Mexico presently, as well as Brazil and Colombia in the past, have or have had the term United States in their official names. Thus, to many, referring to United States citizens as Americans is convenient and legitimate, while using U.S. could perhaps be ambiguous.

In Canada, the term American is widely understood to refer exclusively to citizens of the United States, and Canadians do not refer to themselves as Americans, . On the other hand, in Spain, people who have lived in the Western Hemisphere but now live in Spain may be called, in Spanish, americanos, thus demonstrating that while the English word American and the Spanish word americano have the same origin, the meanings of the words in their respective languages have diverged. However, the Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Dictionary of the Spanish Language) published by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), gives estadounidense (something like unitedstater) as one of the definitions of americano, meaning "someone from the United States or relating to the United States".

Canadians in particular have devoted a great deal of attention to proclaiming that they are not-Americans—meaning United States citizens—both in their own cultural products and when they travel outside the region and are frequently mistaken as coming from the United States of America. For comparison, note that a similar situation exists with the Irish, who often proclaiming that they are not-British—meaning United Kingdom citizens—although the original meaning of British incorporated all of the British Isles (thus it originally included the land which now makes up the Republic of Ireland).

Many people use the word American to indicate any inhabitant of the Americas rather than specifically a citizen of the United States; and perceive the latter usage of American to be potentially ambiguous, and perhaps aggressive in tone or imperialistic, a rather widespread view in Latin America.

In response, some have asserted that the word America in United States of America denotes the country's proper name, and is not a geographical indicator. They argue that the interpretation of United States of America to mean a country named United States located in the continent of America is mistaken. Instead, they argue that the preposition of is equivalent to the of in Federative Republic of Brazil, Commonwealth of Australia, or Federal Republic of Germany. That is, the of indicates the name of the state. In addition, other countries use "United" or "States" in their names as well. Indeed, the formal name of Mexico, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, which is currently officially translated as "United Mexican States", had in the past been translated as "United States of Mexico."

Regardless, many question a nation's right to formally appropriate the name of a continent for itself, citing the fact that America existed long before the United States of America. Indeed, Amerigo Vespucci, who travelled extensively throughout the Caribbean basin, never set foot on present United States territory.

Geographical views

In discussions of geography, one might specify North America, Central America, or South America when the reference is to a continent or region. Residents of the Western Hemisphere rarely call themselves "North American";inhabitants of South America call themselves "South American"; the term "Central American" is more common among United States and Canada inhabitants. Alternative neologisms to American have been proposed to refer exclusively to the United States of America, but they have failed to garner widespread acceptance.

The use of the word American in the U.S.A. has given rise to terms like Mexican-American to refer to people of Mexican origin living in the United States, either as first-generation immigrants or their descendants. These terms are never used to refer to natives of Mexico living in Mexico. Geo-politically speaking, such terms are redundant.

Uncommon consensus

Some U.S. citizens and Latin Americans alike have no problem with the simultaneous usage of American as an adjective for all inhabitants of the Americas, and make the distinction between the demonym for a country and the demonym for a continent (or continents). They argue that there is no reason the two cannot share the term if it is used in distinct but equally legitimate contexts.

In other cases, the motivation is not so much political as it is academic, to avoid a perceived ambiguity. For instance, in legal circles a citizen of the United States is usually referred to as a U.S. citizen, not an American citizen, which could arguably apply to citizens of other American nation states as well.

American in the US Census

"American" ancestry in US counties.

In the United States census, millions of people describe their (main) ethnic origin as American, particularly those belonging in southern states. This region has a high percentage of people who trace their descent to the colonial origins of the United States and often lack records of the particular, but generally, British countries of their ancestor's origins.

American in other contexts

American in cultural usages

American, culturally, generally refers to things which originated within the United States of America.

Some foods, such as hamburgers, are seen as American cuisine.

Some sports, such as baseball or American football, are seen as American, even though they may be played in other countries.

Some music genres, such as jazz, hip hop, country music, barbershop, or American folk music are seen as American, even though they may be popular in other countries.

In Latin America American has cultural connotations of a pan-American sense of identity as popularly documented by old songs like "Si somos americanos", [If we are Americans] by Chilean songwriter, Rolando Alarcón, and more recent ones like "América" by José Luis Perales.

American in scientific usages

American, in taxonomy, usually refers to organisms which originated or were discovered within the American Continent.

The American Black Bear, or Ursus americanus, is found throughout northern Alaska, essentially all of Canada to Newfoundland, most of the United States, and through to central Mexico, namely the states of Nayarit and Tamaulipas.

The American Bison is another animal whose range reaches from Canada to Mexico.

American in other languages

English speakers commonly use American to refer to the United States only. In the United Kingdom, the use of 'US' as an adjective is preferred where it can be comfortably used, and is prevalent in media and government house-styles.

In Spanish and Portuguese, americano 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.

US-American is another option, and is a common demonym in German (US-Amerikaner). Latin Americans also have the euphemism norteamericano (North American, which itself conflates the USA and Canada and possibly Mexico).

United Statian is awkward in English, but it exists in Spanish (estadounidense or "estadinense"), French (étatsunien), Italian (statunitense), Portuguese, where the term estadunidense is growing and it is considered more appropriate than the more common term norte-americano, and occasionally in German (Vereinigten Staatler). In Russian the term штатовец is sometimes used, however informally.

The word Gringo is widely used in all of Latin America, particularly in Mexico, to make a reference to U.S. residents, not necessarily in a pejorative way. Yanqui (Yankee) is also very common in some regions (in contrast to "gringo", "yanqui" tends to have a pejorative undertone.)

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.

Alternative demonyms for U.S. Citizens

There have been a number of attempts to coin an alternative to "American" as an adjective (a demonym) for a citizen of the United States, that would not simultaneously mean an inhabitant of the Americas. However, with the exception of the term U.S. or United States citizens, no serious alternative to American is currently widely used among English speakers or in English-language media.

Common foreign alternatives

Many languages have already created their own distinct word for a citizen of the United States:

• United Statian directly parallels the Spanish term estadounidense.
• Norteamericano (North American) is common in Latin America, but suffers from the same kind of ambiguity as American, since Canadians and Mexicans, amongst others, are also North Americans.
• In Portuguese, norte-americano is the most commonly used term. Estadunidense is gaining some popularity, specifically in Brazil, where its usage traditionally rises during times of tension with the USA.
• In French, États-Unien(ne), Étatsunien(ne), or Étasunien(ne) are gaining some popularity.
• In Italian the term Statunitense (from 'Stati Uniti' = 'United States') is quite widespread, especially referring to sporting events.
• In German, US-Amerikaner (US-American) may be used to avoid ambiguity or to be politically correct, but it may come across as pedantic if used conversationally. Amerikaner is in general usage in German, and is widely accepted to refer to the United States.
• In Icelandic the term Bandaríkjamenn is quite widespread, Bandaríkin (United States) and menn for (people/persons)

Unusual alternatives

• Americanite
• Appalacian (now only considered an accurate term for the people of Appalachia)
• Colonican
• Columbard
• Columbian (hence the District of Columbia)
• Frede or Fredonian
• Nacirema
• Statesider
• Uesican (pronounced [juˈɛsɪkən]) or Uessian (pronounced [juˈɛsiən])
• Unisan or Unisian
• United Stater, United Stateser, United Statian, United Statesian, or United Statesman
• USAian, Usan, USAn, Usanian, Usian (pronounced [ˈjuʒən]), U-S-ian, or Usonian (pronounced [juˈsoʊniən])
• USen
• Vespuccino
• Washingtonian.

References to these words have been around since the early days of the republic, but American has become by far the most common term. Usonian is used in architectural circles, and Washingtonian remains as the adjective for the state of Washington and the city of Washington, D.C..

Alternatives with semantic overtones

• Ami is a colloquialism which unambiguously refers to US citizens in German. The German usage of Ami is akin to the Mexican usage of Gringo, in that it can be neutral, patronizing, or perhaps even affectionate.
• Amerikan is a derogatory spelling, after the Eastern European spelling made popular in the West by Franz Kafka's 1927 novel.
• Usonian, from Usonia, a term Frank Lloyd Wright used to describe his vision for American architecture, homes, and cities, and used by John Dos Passos in his U.S.A. trilogy.
• The Esperanto term for the United States of America is Usono. This is generally thought to come from "Usonia." In Esperanto, one forms the word for a citizen of a given country using the suffix "-an" which means "member of." Therefore a citizen of the United States is usonano. (Such derived words are not capitalized.) Esperanto terms for the American geographic regions and their people are Ameriko/amerikano, Norda Ameriko/nordamerikano, Meza Ameriko/mezamerikano, and Suda Ameriko/sudamerikano.
• Usanian is derived from the Ido word Usana.
• Yankee, often shortened to Yank, is used all over the world in an informal manner similar to the use of the Mexican word Gringo. Both terms may occasionally be used in an affectionate or pejorative sense. On occasion some U.S. citizens will take offense at the term Yankee, particularly Southerners (residents of the Southeastern United States), who use Yankee to refer to Northerners (residents of the Northeastern United States), sometimes in a derogatory way.
  • The colloquial term Yank for a U.S citizen, used in Britain and Australia (and sometimes Canada), is a derivative of Yankee. The rhyming slang term Sepo or Seppo, derived from septic tank, is used particularly in Australia, but is considered highly offensive.

Less serious alternatives

Less serious terms that have been popular on the Internet at various times include

• Leftpondian - from the fact that the USA is on the left side of the Atlantic Ocean (the "pond") as seen on a map with north at the top. This term is often used to include Canadians as well.
• Merkin - from the way some Americans pronounce the word American, but also playing on the word's other meaning in a form of Anti-Americanism. See merkin.

See also

• Americas (terminology)
• Alternative words for British

Scholarly sources

• Alexander Hamilton. The Federalist No. 24. The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered. The Federalist Papers.
• Allen, Irving L. The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture (1983).
• Herbst, Philip H. Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States (1997) ISBN 1877864978.

External links

• "The trouble with Americans" by The Guardian on the use of the word "American" meaning "US citizen" (September 7, 1998)
• Diccionario de la Lengua Española entry for americano