Americanとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From America +‎ -n, or via Latin americanus.

発音

• IPA^(key): /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/

固有名詞

American (複数形 Americans)

1. A citizen or inhabitant 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.

   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.

2. (まれに) Any inhabitant of the Americas.
3. (historical) A citizen or inhabitant of British North America.
4. (archaic) Synonym of American Indian or Native American, an indigenous inhabitant of the Americas. [from 16th c.]
   • 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, p. 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’.

6. (uncountable, US printing, rare, dated) A size of type smaller than German, 1-point type.
7. (informal, humorous, colloquial) The dialect of English spoken in and around the continental United States of America.
   • 1896, The North American Review, 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 […]

   • 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 […]

   • 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 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 and 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.

使用する際の注意点

1. Within most English dialects, American now refers particularly to the people of the largest English-speaking country in the Americas, the United States. Other senses now typically require qualifiers: Central American, Native American, &c. Some speakers maintain separate idiolects, however, including some Native Americans. Many Latin Americans also pointedly maintain Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese's preference for using América to refer to the Americas generally.
2. Discussion of unqualified American as a language separate from or in place of English is typically considered a sign of poor education or used to mock others' supposed ignorance, parochialism, or excessive nationalism.

同意語

• (person from the USA): Yank (英国用法 & 通例); Ameritard, Seppo (pejorative); USian, Usonian, United Statian, US-American, United Statesian (まれに)
• (person from the Americas): Western Hemispherian, New Worlder (まれに)

下位語

• See Thesaurus:North, South, & Native American

派生語

派生語

形容詞

American (comparative more American, superlative most American)

1. Of, from, or pertaining to the United States of America, its people, or its culture.
   • 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 57395299:

     Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor.

   • 2019 April 14, Jennifer Welsh Zeiter in "Putting American Flags on Police Cars Sparks Backlash in Laguna Beach", 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...

   He married an American woman in order to get an American passport.

   Thanksgiving is an American tradition.

2. (まれに) Of, from, or pertaining to the Americas.

   This is pure American powder from the foothills of Colombia.

3. (historical) Of, from, or pertaining to British North America.
4. (archaic) Synonym of American Indian and Native American, of, from, or pertaining to the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas.
5. (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 and 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.

使用する際の注意点

See above.

同意語

• (from または related to the USA): Yank (英国用法 & 通例); USian, USAian, Usanian, Usonian, United Statian, US American, United Statesian (まれに)
• (from または related to the Americas): Western Hemispherian

等位語

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

下位語

• See Thesaurus:North, South, & Native American

派生語