America
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *amalaz
English America
Learned borrowing from New Latin America, feminine Latinized form of the Italian first name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). Amerigo is an Italian name derived from a Germanic language and is etymologically related to Henry and Emmerich. The earliest known use of America for the (South) American continent is on a 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller;[1][2] see Naming of the Americas for more.
Although this is the most widely accepted derivation, it has also been suggested that it could originate from the name of the Amerrisque mountains in Nicaragua (from Mayan), and another disputed theory is that it derives from the surname of Richard Amerike (1440–1503), whose surname is an anglicised form of Welsh ap Meurig (“son of Meurig”), from Old Welsh Mouric, which could be a rendition of Latin Mauritius (compare Maurice).[3]
Pronunciation
Proper noun
America (plural Americas)
- The Americas.
- 1847, Joseph Dalton Hooker, On the Vegetation of the Galapagos Archipelago, as compared with that of some other Tropical Islands and of the Continent of America, , pages 235–262:
- The results of my examination ... for the most part allied to plants of the cooler part of America, or the uplands of the tropical latitudes ...
- 1890, Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 796:
- the Marsupials or pouched animals, being found throughout the continent of America, from the United States to Patagonia
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 691:
- Franciscan attitudes in the Canaries offered possible precedents for what Europe now came to call ‘the New World’, or, through a somewhat tangled chain of circumstances, ‘America’.
- A female given name.
- A town in Limburg, Netherlands.
- The United States of America.
- 1837, George Sand, translated by Stanley Young, Mauprat, Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237:
- For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants' hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war in America, which was hailed as the awakening of the spirit of liberty and justice in the New World, ought to produce a revolution in France.
- 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, page 74:
- In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
- 2014 July 27, “Nuclear Weapons”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 12, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
- And once gain, America is saved from destruction by the heroes in “MEAL Team Six”.
- 2022 April 3, Roisin Conaty & al., Big Fat Quiz of Everything, Channel 4:
- Captain America, how did he get his powers?
I think he... he got bitten by America.
- Captain America, how did he get his powers?
Usage notes
In English, the unqualified term "America" often refers to the United States of America as a synecdoche, with "American" typically referring to people and things from that country. The sense of "the Americas" varies in commonness between regions in contemporary English, but is found in certain circumstances, such as in reference to the Organization of American States.
Synonyms
- (North and South America) Americas
- (United States of America) see United States of America#Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
United States of America — see United States of America
Americas — see Americas
See also
- (continents) continent; Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, South America, (Category: en:Continents)
References
- Merriam-Webster Online, Mapping Out the Naming of 'America'
- “Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii alioru[m]que lustrationes.”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), 2014 September 8 (last accessed), archived from the original on January 9, 2009; Martin Waldseemüller (2014 April 18 (last accessed)) “Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii alioru[m]que lustrationes”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Washington, DC: Library of Congress, →LCCN
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. (2016). United Kingdom: OUP Oxford, p. 1881
- Krapp, George Philip (1925) The English Language in America, volume II, New York: Century Co. for the Modern Language Association of America, →OCLC, page 49.
Further reading
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