America
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kə/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /əˈmɛɹ.ə.kə/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /əˈmɛɹ.kə/
rhymes: -ɛɹɪkə
note: Indic
ipa: /əm(ɛ)ˈrɪkɑ/
note: Indic
ipa: /əˈmerɪkɑ/
ipa: /əˈmɚ.ɪ.kə/
ipa: /əˈmɚ.ə.kə/
ipa: /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.keɪ/
ipa: /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kɔː/
Forms: form: Americas
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *amalą
Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-s
Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs
Proto-Celtic *rīxsbor.
Proto-Germanic *rīks
Proto-Germanic *Amalarīksder.
Proto-Indo-European *ḱey-
Proto-Indo-European *-mos
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos
Proto-Indo-European *tḱóymos
Proto-Germanic *haimaz
Proto-Germanic *rīks
Proto-Germanic *Haimarīksder.?
Italian Amerigoder.
New Latin Americalbor.
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; 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).
Senses: examples: text: 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 ...
ref: 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”, in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, →DOI, pages 235–262:
text: the Marsupials or pouched animals, being found throughout the continent of America, from the United States to Patagonia
ref: 1890, Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 796:
text: 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’.
ref: 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 691:
glosses: A supercontinent consisting of North America, Central America and South America regarded as a whole; in full, the Americas.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1837, George Sand, translated by Stanley Young, Mauprat, Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237:
text: So that there can be no possible misunderstanding, both Germany and Japan can be certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that America will continue to fight for freedom until no vestige of resistance remains. Our demand has been and it remains unconditional surrender.
ref: 1945 April 16, Harry S. Truman, 10:06 from the start, in MP72-20 President Roosevelt’s Funeral and Procession; Truman – New President of U.S., Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:
text: America, fuck yeah! / Comin' again to save the motherfuckin' day, yeah!
ref: 2004, Trey Parker, “America, Fuck Yeah”:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, page 74:
text: And once gain, America is saved from destruction by the heroes in “MEAL Team Six”.
ref: 2014 July 27, “Nuclear Weapons”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 12, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
text: Captain America, how did he get his powers?
I think he... he got bitten by America.
ref: 2022 April 3, Roisin Conaty & al., Big Fat Quiz of Everything, Channel 4
glosses: A country in North America; in full, United States of America.
glosses: A female given name.
glosses: A town in Limburg, Netherlands.
Synonyms: word: Americas
Derived terms: Afro-America
All-America
Amasia
American
Americana
Americaness
Americaphobe
Americaphobic
America's Hat
Americaward
Americawards
America-wide
Americentric
Amerikkka
Amerithrax
Ameritopia
Anglo-America
Aridoamerica
British America
Central America
Chimerica
Crossroads of America
Euramerica
Excited States of America
Generica
God bless America
Gulf of America
Ibero-America
Islamerica
Jewmerica
Mesoamerica
Mexamerica
Mid-America
'Murica
NorAm
North America
Oasisamerica
South America
United States of America
Weimerica
when America sneezes, the world catches a cold
Young America