# American
## English
### Alternative forms

* Am., Amer. (abbr.); Americanian (humorous); Murican (pejorative or humorous)

### Etymology

From America +‎ -n. compare Latin americānus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/, (rural US) IPA: /əˈmɝ.ə.kən/
* Audio (UK):(file)
* (weak vowel merger) IPA: /əˈmɛɹ.ə.kən/, /əˈmɛɹ.kən/

### Noun

American (plural Americans)
* A citizen or national of the United States of America.
** 1852 July 5, Frederick Douglass, speech to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Rochester, New York:
    Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation... is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen.
** 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I:...the British ruling class obviously could not admit to themselves that their usefulness was at an end. Had they done that they would have had to abdicate. For it was not possible for them to turn themselves into mere bandits, like the American millionaires, consciously clinging to unjust privileges and beating down opposition by bribery and tear-gas bombs. After all, they belonged to a class with a certain tradition, they had been to public schools where the duty of dying for your country, if necessary, is laid down as the first and greatest of the Commandments.
** 1984 Aug. 11, Ronald Reagan, soundcheck for a weekly address:
    My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
** 2015 October 30, The Graham Norton Show, season 18, episode 6:Graham Norton: But the people coming up to you now, like the Americans, well, you know, the Americans, they're not shy, the Americans. Maggie Smith: No. Well, no but I don't go anywhere where really they can get at me. It's usually in museums and art galleries and things, so that limits things. I keep away from there, and Harrod's I don't go near.
    Roughly two-thirds of Americans default to the General American accent, with other dialects like Southern, AAVE, and Chicano usually being considered lower prestige outside of entertainment and politics.
* Any inhabitant of the Americas.
* (historical) A citizen or inhabitant of British America.
* (archaic) An indigenous inhabitant of the Americas. [from 16th c.]
    Hyponyms: American Indian, Native American
** 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, page 56:The Americans believe that all creatures have souls.
** [ 2012, Jonathan Keates, ‘Mon Père, ce héros’, Literary Review, 402:
    Within a few months the ‘slave Alexandre’ had been successfully transformed into what, across the Channel, was called a ‘blackamoor dandy’. Parisians preferred the more politely euphemistic term ‘American’. ]
* (informal, humorous, colloquial) The dialect of English spoken in and around the contiguous United States of America.
** 1871, United States. Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo, Report, with the Introductory Message of the President, Special Reports Made to the Commission, State Papers Furnished by the Dominican Government, and the Statements of Over Seventy Witnesses, page 268:-A . Spanish ; my mother and father speak American ; my brothers and sisters speak Spanish ; when he is in the house , we speak American ; we have American prayers at night before we go to bed . Q. Is that usual in the families of the […]
** Francis E. Clark, in: 1896, The North American Review, volume 163, page 28:“Do you speak American,” then asked the lady. “Oh, naow,” he replied with a still stronger emphasis. “But wouldn't you like to learn American?" persisted the lady. “Oh, naow, thanks," answered this sturdy little patriot. […]
** 1945, Clarence I. Chatto, Alice L. Halligan, The Story of the Springfield Plan:The fact that they speak American and don ' t wear German uniforms makes them more dangerous than the Jerries themselves . What does your Springfield Plan do about them ? Here is a fighting challenge . In the light of this challenge the […]
** 1909, Ambrose Bierce, Write it Right:Donate for Give. Good American, but not good English.
** 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 756:We sat down in the central square and drank coffee and a man came up and spoke to us in American.
** 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 490:"Where do you keep your cash, bub?" asked Idris hoarsely. His American was better than Hassan's English.
** 1998, Jim Kouf, Ross LaManna, Rush Hour, New Line Cinema:JAMES CARTER: Mr. Rice-a-Roni; don't even speak American.
** 2014, David Ayer, Fury, Columbia Pictures:DON COLLIER: This is an American tank; we talk American.
* (clipping of) American cheese.
    Q: What kinds of cheese do you have? A: We have American, Swiss, cheddar, provolone, or wiz.
* (rail transport) A steam locomotive of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. 4-4-0 on Wikipedia
* (uncountable, US printing, rare, dated) A size of type smaller than German, 1-point type.

#### Usage notes

* Within most English dialects, American now refers particularly to the people of the most populous English-speaking country in the Americas, the United States of America. Other senses now typically require qualifiers: Central American, Native American, etc. Some speakers maintain separate idiolects, however, including some Native Americans. Many Latin Americans also pointedly maintain Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese's preference for using Américas to refer to the Americas generally, and estado-unidense and estadounidense when refering to both the country and its inhabitants.
* Usage of unqualified American as a language separate from or in place of English, though once sincere, is now typically considered a sign of poor education or used to mock others' supposed ignorance, parochialism, or excessive nationalism.

#### Synonyms

* (person from the U.S.): Yank (UK & Commonwealth); Ameritard (derogatory), Seppo (pejorative); USian, Usonian, United Statian, US-American, United Statesian (rare); see also Thesaurus:American
* (person from the Americas): Western Hemispherian, New Worlder (uncommon)

#### Hyponyms

* See Thesaurus:North, South, & Native American

#### Derived terms

* AAPI
* Aboriginal American
* Afra-American
* African American
* African-American English
* Afro-American
* Amerasian
* American bluehearts
* American crocodile
* Americanese
* American flamingo
* Americanian
* American muffin
* Americanoid
* American Pygmy
* American pygmy goat
* Americrap
* Americunt
* Amerifuck
* Amerikkkan
* AmeriKKKunt
* Amerishit
* Ameritard
* Anglo-American
* Asian American
* basketball American
* Canado-American
* Can-Am
* Euro-American
* European-American
* Fatmerican
* Franco-American
* General American
* Hispanic American
* Indian-American
* Irish American
* Italian American
* Italo-American
* Jewmerican
* Mexamerican
* Mexican American
* my fellow Americans
* Negro-American
* Norse-American
* one hundred percent American
* orange-American
* Pacific Islander American
* Paleo-American
* Russian-American
* SAE
* Spanish American
* Standard American
* Standard American English
* ugly American
* unbleached American
* US-American

#### Derived terms

* Americanese
* General American

#### Translations
### Adjective

American (comparative more American, superlative most American)
* Of, from, or pertaining to the United States of America, its people, or its culture.
    He married an American woman in order to get an American passport.
    Thanksgiving is an American tradition.
** 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor.
** 1964, John F. Kennedy, “Waves of Immigration-the Post-Revolutionary Forces”, in A Nation of Immigrants‎, Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 17:Each new wave of immigration helped meet the needs of American development and made its distinctive contribution to the American character.
** 2019 April 14, Jennifer Welsh Zeiter, “Putting American Flags on Police Cars Sparks Backlash in Laguna Beach”, in Los Angeles Times::...they cannot see through their current biases to realize that a police vehicle with the American flag is the ultimate American expression...
* (uncommon) Of, from, or pertaining to the Americas.
    This is pure American powder from the foothills of Colombia.
* (historical) Of, from, or pertaining to British North America.
* (archaic) Of, from, or pertaining to the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas.
    Hyponyms: American Indian, Native American
* (finance, of an option, not comparable) Able to be exercised on any date between its issue and expiry.
** 2009, John C. Hull, Options, Futures, and other Derivatives (Seventh Edition), Pearson Education, page 182:All of these trade on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Most of the contracts are European. An exception is the OEX contract on the S&P 100, which is American.
** 2009, Shih-Feng Huang, Meihui Guo, Applied Quantitative Finance (Second Edition), Springer, page 295:Multi-dimensional option pricing becomes an important topic in financial markets (Franker et al., 2008). Among which, the American-type derivative (e.g. the Bermudan option) pricing is a challenging problem.
** 2010, Johnathan Mun, Modeling Risk + DVD: Applying Monte Carlo Risk Simulation, Strategic Real Options, Stochastic Forecasting, and Portfolio Optimization (Second Edition), John Wiley & Sons:Based on the analyses throughout the case study, it is recommended that the use of a model that assumes an ESO is European style when, in fact, the option is American style with the other exotic variables should not be permitted, as this substantially overstates compensation expenses.

#### Usage notes

See above.

#### Synonyms

* (from or related to the USA): Yank (UK & Commonwealth); USian, USAian, Usanian, Usonian, United Statian, US American, United Statesian (rare)
* (from or related to the Americas): Western Hemispherian

#### Hyponyms

* See Thesaurus:North, South, & Native American

#### Coordinate terms

* (timing of option exercise): Bermudan, Canary, European, Verde

#### Derived terms

* AACD
* ABA
* AFL
* all-American
* all-Americanness
* AMA
* Americana
* American Airlines
* American alligator
* American aloe
* American Alsatian
* American as apple pie
* American ash
* American aspen
* American badger
* American basswood
* American Beauty
* American beaver
* American beech
* American bird grasshopper
* American bison
* American bittern
* American bittersweet
* American black bear
* American black duck
* American Black English
* American black vulture
* American Bobtail
* American breakfast
* American brook charr
* American buffalo
* American Bulldog
* American bully
* American calumba
* American Canyon
* American centaury
* American Century
* American chameleon
* American cheese
* American chestnut
* American chop suey
* American Civil War
* American cliff swallow
* American climbing fern
* American cloth
* American cocker spaniel
* American cockroach
* American columbo
* American comic book
* American coot
* American Cordillera
* American Craftsman
* American cranberrybush
* American Curl
* American darter
* American darts
* American diamond
* American dingo
* American dipper
* American dollar
* American doubles
* American Dream
* American dun-bar
* American eagle
* American elm
* American Empire
* American English
* American Eskimo Dog
* American Falls
* American football
* American forge
* American Fork
* American foulbrood
* American foxhound
* American Foxhound
* American fried potatoes
* American fries
* American gauge
* American ginseng
* American golden plover
* American goldfinch
* American gothic
* American goulash
* American green tree frog
* American handegg
* American holly
* American hornbeam
* American Indian
* Americanism
* Americanist
* Americanization
* Americanize
* American jay
* American kestrel
* American Keuda
* American laurel
* American League
* American Legion
* American lion
* American lobster
* American longhair
* American lotus
* Americanly
* American marten
* American mink
* American muffin
* Americanness
* American night heron
* Americanocentric
* Americanophobe
* American option
* American ostrich
* American paddlefish
* American painted lady
* American pancake
* American pennyroyal
* American perch
* American pipit
* American pit bull terrier
* American plan
* American planetree
* American plum
* American pokeweed
* American pondweed
* American redstart
* American Renaissance
* American Revised Version
* American Revolution
* American Revolutionary War
* American rhea
* American Ringtail
* American River
* American robin
* American round
* American Saddlebred
* American saddle horse
* American Samoa
* American shad
* American share
* American Shorthair
* American shot
* American Sign Language
* American snakebird
* American snout
* American South
* American Spanish
* American Staffordshire terrier
* American Standard Code for Information Interchange
* American Standard Version
* American studies
* American style option
* American sweetgum
* American sycamore
* American Thanksgiving
* American three-toed woodpecker
* American tiger
* American tree sparrow
* American tulip tree
* American vetch
* American warbler
* American War of Independence
* American water spaniel
* American Water Spaniel
* American way
* American white birch
* American white ibis
* American widgeon
* American wild plum
* American winterberry
* American wire gauge
* American Wirehair
* American woodcock
* Amerind
* Amerindian
* anti-Americanism
* AT&T
* COCA
* Great American Songbook
* Ibero-American
* I'm American
* Interamerican
* Mesoamerican
* Mexamerican
* Mexican-American War
* Mid-American
* modified American plan
* New American
* nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people
* nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people
* North American ringtail
* Pan-American
* Sicilian American
* Southern American English
* Spanish American
* Spanish-American War
* un-Americanness

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Proper noun

American
* A township in Allen County, Ohio, United States.

### Anagrams

* in camera, Cinerama, Camerina, Carêmian, marcaine, amacrine