America
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From a Latinized form of the forename of Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512), or from Richard Amerike (1445-1503).
Pronunciation[edit]
Proper noun[edit]
America (plural Americas)
- The landmass now divided into the continents of North and South America.
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 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’.
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 691:
- (often with a possessive pronoun) An idealized destination or object of one's ambition.
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, II.402:
- Thou sawest thy America, thy lifetask, and didst charge to cover like the transpontine bison.
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, II.402:
- The United States of America.
- 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, 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.
- 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
Usage notes[edit]
Residents of the United States of America may refer to their country as the "United States" (more formal), "America" (common and often patriotic), "the U.S.A.", or simply "the States" (informal). Residents of Alaska, United States of America's northernmost state, refer to mainland America as "the lower 48" (informal).
Residents of the United Kingdom typically refer to the United States of America as "America". Residents of Canada less frequently refer to the United States of America as "America", referring otherwise to "the United States" (more formal), "the U.S." (common), or simply "the States" (informal). Peoples from Latin American countries usually refer to "America" as the whole continent, rarely using the term "Americas" mostly used in the United States.
The plural form "the Americas" is common when referring to North and South America together, to avoid ambiguity. Seen as a single continent, it is commonly "the continent of America".
Synonyms[edit]
See also[edit]
- (continents) continent; Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America (Category: en:Continents)
Translations[edit]
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Statistics[edit]
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Most common English words before 1923: camp · prove · engaged · #992: America · servant · doctor · Michael
Italian[edit]
Proper noun[edit]
America f
- (continent) the Americas
Derived terms[edit]
- americano
- America Centrale
- America Latina
- cardellino d'America
- lucherino d'America
- Nord America / America del Nord / America settentrionale
- Stati Uniti d'America
- Sud America / America del Sud / America meridionale
Anagrams[edit]
Latin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Feminine form of Latin Americus, Latinization of Amerigen, from the name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512). First recorded in 1507 for South America;[1] first applied to both North and South America by Mercator in 1538.
The name was apparently coined by Matthias Ringmann, first as Amerigen "land of Amerigo", from Amerigo and gen, the accusative case of Greek gē "earth". It was Latinized and then feminized to accord with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa.[2]
Amerigo is the Italian form of a Gothic personal name, Amalric "master workman", from amal "work" and ric "power".
Proper noun[edit]
America f (genitive Americae); first declension
Inflection[edit]
First declension with locative.
| Number | Singular |
|---|---|
| nominative | America |
| genitive | Americae |
| dative | Americae |
| accusative | Americam |
| ablative | Americā |
| vocative | America |
| locative | Americae |
References[edit]
- ^ Hebert, John R., "The Map That Named America: Library Acquires 1507 Waldseemüller Map of the World" [1], Information Bulletin, Library of Congress.
- ^ Toby Lester, December 2009. "Putting America on the Map", Smithsonian 40:9.
Romanian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Proper noun[edit]
America f (plural Americi)
Derived terms[edit]
Declension[edit]
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gender f | indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite |
| Nom/Acc | ||||
| America | Americi | Americile | ||
| Gen/Dat | ||||
| Americii | ||||
| Americilor | ||||
