| 词组 | America, American |
| 释义 | America, American From 1791 to the present people have questioned the propriety or accuracy of using America to mean the United States and American to mean an inhabitant or citizen of the United States. America is used very generally both by writers and public speakers, when they only intend the territory of the United States.... It may have first come into use as being much shorter to say Americans, than citizens of the United States —Gazette of the United States, 16 Feb. 1791 (Dictionary of American English) • Every once in a while someone comes along who is perturbed about Americans calling themselves Americans, feeling that we have no right to use this term exclusively, that citizens of all the nations of the American continents are Americans —letter to editor, Christian Science Monitor, 1 Aug. 1967 • It is becoming presumptuous and inaccurate to refer to North Americans as "Americans," especially in the context of defending or upsetting Central Americans, South Americans and Latin Americans —William Safire, N.Y. Times Mag., 3 June 1984 Safire followed his remark with a call for his readers to suggest "new monickers for United States citizens," but his call seems to have brought in few suggestions, since no mention of them was contained in Safire 1986. H. L. Mencken in American Speech, December 1947, had quite a long list of suggested replacements for American. The list contains (in approximate historical order from 1789 to 1939) such terms as Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Coloni-can, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Ues-sian, U-S-ian, Uesican. None of these proposed substitutes has caught on. Despite the perceived difficulty with America and American in this use, the terms are fully established. Cotton Mather seems to have been the first writer to use American for a colonist, back before the dawn of the 18th century. It became established during the course of that century. The historian Samuel Eliot Morison cites a naval expedition of 1741 as being the first time the English referred to colonial troops as Americans rather than provincials. Benjamin Franklin used both America and American in this sense. The Dictionary of American English also cites George Washington: • The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than appellatives derived from local discriminations —Farewell Address, 1796 Here are two other commenators: • The general term American is now commonly understood (at least in all places where the English language is spoken) to mean an inhabitant of the United States, and is so employed except where unusual precision is required —John Pickering, An American Glossary, 1816 • The use of America for the United States & American for (citizen) of the U.S.... will continue to be protested against by purists & patriots, & will doubtless survive the protests —Fowler 1926 If you feel diffident about these words like Safire, or require "unusual precision," the equivalent phrases are readily available. In other cases, America and American will do. |
| 随便看 |
|
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。