| 释义 |
American, a. and n.|əˈmɛrɪkən|
A. adj.
1. a. Belonging to the continent of America. Also, of or pertaining to its inhabitants.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas i. iii. (1641) 25/1 Under the Empire of the Ocean, Atlantike, Indian, and American. 1633Herbert Temple, Ch. Mil. 235 Religion stands on tip⁓toe in our land, Readie to pass to the American strand. 1773Barrington in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 285, I have happened..to hear the American mocking-bird. 1885Century Mag. Apr. 953/2 To use an expression made popular, we believe, by General Hawley some years ago.., dynamiting is ‘not the American way’! 1937Hemingway To Have & Have Not iii. xvi. 232 The Colt or Smith and Wesson..so well designed to end the American dream when it becomes a nightmare. 1960Observer 17 Jan. 20/6 The spread of personal prosperity in America has led away from, rather than towards, the American Dream. Ibid. 20/7 The American Dream, the reasonable expectations of Americans, are by tradition that all men shall be equal. 1961M. McCarthy On the Contrary (1962) i. 40 Apologists for the American Way of Life find themselves condoning injustices.
b. American language (usu. with the), (i) a language of American Indians; (ii) American English (see sense 3). Also American tongue.
1643J. Langley in R. Williams' Key into Lang. of Amer. 200, I have read over these thirty Chapters of the American Language, to me wholly unknowne. 1689I. Mather Brief Relation of State of New Engl. 16 In an Indian Town..was an Englishman, who being skilful in the American Language, Preached the Gospel to them in their own Tongue. 1789Webster Dissertations Eng. Lang. i. 22 Numerous local causes..will introduce new words into the American tongue. 1800in Mencken Amer. Lang. (1936) i. i. 11 (title) On the Scheme of an American Language. Ibid., Grammars and dictionaries should be compiled by natives of the country, not of the British or English, but of the American tongue. 1839Penny Cycl. XIII. 320 The singular congruity in structure between all the American languages, from the northern to the southern extremity of the continent. 1936Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) i. iii. 23 This occasional tolerance for things American was never extended to the American language.
2. a. Belonging to the British colonies in North America (obs.). b. Belonging to the United States.
1647Ward Simple Cob. 24 Divers make it an Article of our American Creed. 1775Johnson (title) Taxation no Tyranny, an Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American Congress. 1883Daily News 14 May 5/8 The plain evening dress which bespeaks the American Minister everywhere.
c. U.S. spec. (See quot. a 1861.)
1837Diplom. Corr. Texas (1908) I. 187 A large number of fine American horses..which there is no doubt had been stolen from citizens of Texas. 1846E. Bryant What I saw in Calif. (1849) iv. 37 Such [Indians] as rode ponies were desirous of swapping them for the American horses of the emigrants. a1861Winthrop John Brent (1862) ii. 14 He was an American horse,—so they distinguish in California one brought from the old States. 1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds, xvi. 253, I rode a good-sized American horse.
3. a. Special Combs. American bar [bar n.1 28], the name given (outside the U.S.) to a bar serving refreshments in allegedly American style; American blight = apple-aphis; American cheese, cheese of the Cheddar type, made in the U.S.; American cloth, (a) = Americani; (b) also American oilcloth, see cloth n. 9 c; American dream, the ideal of a democratic and prosperous society which is the traditional aim of the American people; a catch-phrase used to symbolize American social or material values in general; American English, the form of English used by the inhabitants of the U.S.; American football, a team game orig. based on Rugby football and played between two sides each with eleven players on the field; now the prevalent form of football in N. America; American leather (see leather n. 1); American organ, see organ n.1 3 c; American plan, ‘the system of charging an inclusive price for room and board in a hotel’ (see D.A.E.), contrasted with European plan; American sheeting = Americani; American Sign Language, a sign language consisting of a system of manual gestures, developed for the use of the deaf in the U.S.; cf. ASL s.v. A III, Ameslan; American supper, tea, a social function for raising funds to which the guests contribute by bringing or buying food and drink; American tournament Sport, a tournament in which each competitor plays each of the others in turn; opp. knock-out a. 1, n. 6.
1862*American bar [see cobbler 3]. 1869B. J. Spedding Ino 25 Trio. Air, ‘American Bar’. 1886L. P. Richardson Dark City ii. 20 If the English bar is a curiosity to an American, the American bar is still more so. 1913G. W. Hills John Bull Ltd. 229 [Many English hotels] proudly bear aloft the sign of relief yclept ‘American Bar’; but sign and beverages are alike delusions.
1815Kirby & Spence Introd. Entomol. I. vi. 196 The greatest enemy of this tree, and which has been known in this country [England] only about twenty years, is the apple-aphis, called by some Coccus, and by others the *American blight. 1882American blight [see blight n. 2 b].
1804Guardian of Freedom (Frankfort, Ky.) 10 Mar. 2/1 (D.A.), Cheese, *American per lb. 18. 1860Dickens Uncomm. Trav. vi, in All Year Round 24 Mar. 515/1 Your waiter..is carrying in seventeen pounds of American cheese. 1879American cheese [see Cheddar].
1860J. A. Grant in Blackw. Mag. (1865) XCVII. 107 The body sewed up in an *American cloth. 1889J. C. Willoughby East Africa & its Big Game App. ii. Eng.-Swaheli Vocab., American cloth, Amerikano. 1896C. James Yoke of Freedom 85 Not a single ring of stickiness was to be found upon the American-cloth table-cover. 1896H. G. Wells Wheels of Chance iv, A neat packet of American cloth behind the saddle contained his change of raiment. 1904E. Nesbit Phoenix & Carpet x. 190 The marble-patterned American oil-cloth which careful housewives use to cover dressers and kitchen tables.
1931J. T. Adams Epic of Amer. 410 If the *American dream is to come true and to abide with us, it will, at bottom, depend on the people themselves. 1937, etc. [see sense 1 above]. 1977Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 45/2 When they die-cast the fins on the 1959 Cadillac, part of the American Dream blossomed. 1986Guardian 18 Jan. 19/8 The American dream seems as far from reality as my Communist dream. Your faith is money and mine is politics, so we both have our burden.
1806Webster Pref., In fifty years from this time, the *American-English will be spoken by more people, than all the other dialects of the language. 1906Westm. Gaz. 24 Dec. 16/3 It is..distinctly American-English in its tendency towards phonetic spelling. 1942Bloch & Trager Outl. Linguistic Anal. 52 The accentual features of the sentence in American English are as yet practically unknown.
1891W. Camp Amer. Football 19 One should also call attention to a menace which threatened *American football... I refer to the ‘block game’. 1906Gallaher & Stead Compl. Rugby Footballer p. xi, A comparison with modern American football. 1972J. Mosedale Hall of Fame Bk. Football p. ii, Rugby evolved into American football, first played by colleges when Princeton met Rutgers in 1869. 1985Economist 26 Oct. 6 It should be mandatory for all Economist correspondents in the United States to attend one game of American football.
1856A. M. Murray Lett. from U.S. 56, I like one *American plan, of paying for inn accommodations..at the rate of three or four dollars a-day, and there is an end of it. 1879Appleton's Guide to U.S. & Canada 1 The [N.Y.] hotels conducted on the regular or American plan. 1914Maclean's Mag. June 109/3 Windsor Hotel..Rates: American Plan, $1.50–$2.50. European Plan, 75c. to $1.50.
1863in Petherick Trav. Central Africa (1869) II. 179, I have already taken from your stores..96 yards of *American sheeting.
1960W. C. Stokoe Sign Lang. Structure 29 The *American sign language, ultimately deriving from the French, has been extended to a larger population. 1977D. M. Rumbaugh et al. in D. M. Rumbaugh Lang. Learning by Chimpanzee iv. 89 Both in the American Sign Language used by the Gardners and in Premack's plastic sign language, word-concepts are the smallest units of expression.
1926Guild Mar. 93/2 *American Supper at Cadby... The men provided the baskets containing supper for two, and the ladies bid for them... A good amount was raised.
1931Oxf. Times 5 June 8/5 An *American tea was held on Saturday in the gardens of 158, Banbury-road. 1939T. S. Eliot Family Reunion i. i. 23, I should have been helping Lady Bumpus, at the Vicar's American Tea.
[1881Times 2 May 12/2 An All-England tournament on the American principle..was commenced on Saturday last at the Royal Aquarium.] 1896W. Broadfoot et al. Billiards i. 41 In 1876 D. Richards..ran second to Cook in an *American tournament. 1976Cumberland News 3 Dec. 19/1 On Thursday, December 16..a Christmas American tournament will take place.
b. In the names of various trees and plants native to North America, as American arbor vitæ, Thuja occidentalis; American ash, Fraxinus americana; American aspen (tree), Populus tremuloides; American Beauty (rose), a variety of cultivated rose; American beech (tree), Fagus grandifolia; American elm (tree), = white elm; American plane (tree), the buttonwood or Virginian Plane (see plane n.1 1).
1785H. Marshall Amer. Grove 152 Thuja adorata. American sweet-scented Arbor Vitæ. 1892A. C. Apgar Trees Northern U.S. 194 American Arbor-Vitæ..Wild north, and extensively cultivated throughout under more than a score of named varieties.
1744F. Moore Voy Georgia 98 The trees in the grove are mostly bay,..hickory, American ash. 1897G. B. Sudworth Arborescent Flora 327 Fraxinus americana, White Ash..Common names [include]..American Ash (Iowa).
1785H. Marshall Amer. Grove 107 American Aspen-tree. 1892A. C. Apgar Trees Northern U.S. 168 American Aspen..[is] common both in forests and in cultivation.
1887Columbus (Ohio) Hort. Soc. Jrnl. II. 43 The American Beauty is one of the finest introductions of late years. 1904N.Y. Times 24 Nov. 14 A box of thirty-nine American Beauty roses.
1785H. Marshall Amer. Grove 46 American Beech Tree. The nuts are eaten by swine. 1955Nomencl. Commerc. Timbers (B.S.I.) 42 Fagus grandifolia, Canada and Eastern U.S.A., American beech.
1785H. Marshall Amer. Grove 156 American rough leaved Elm-tree..rises to the height of about thirty feet. 1868H. W. Beecher Norwood 4 Of all trees, no other unites, in the same degree, majesty and beauty, grace and grandeur, as the American Elm!
1785H. Marshall Amer. Grove 105 American Plane-Tree, or large Button Wood,..is sometimes sawed into boards. 1848A. Gray Man. Botany Northern U.S. 433 American Plane or Sycamore.
B. n.
1. An American Indian.
1578G. Best Frobisher's Voy. (1867) 284 The Americans..which dwell under the equinoctiall line. 1632Massinger City Madam iii. iii, Worse Than ignorant Americans. 1711Addison Spect. No. 56 ⁋1 The Americans believe that all creatures have souls. 1777Robertson Amer. II. 417 Amazing accounts are given of the persevering speed of the Americans.
2. A native of America of European descent; esp. a citizen of the United States. Now simply, a native or inhabitant of North or South America (often with qualifying word, as Latin American, North American); a citizen of the United States.
1765Gale in Phil. Trans. LV. 198 Paying quit-rents to monopolizers of large tracts of land, is not well relished by Americans. 1775Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 13 That the Americans are able to bear taxation is indubitable. 1809Kendall Trav. II. lviii. 286 The Americans, that is the subjects of the United States. 1882Howells in Cent. Mag. Nov. 26 We Americans are terribly in earnest about making ourselves.
3. A ship belonging to America.
1817Southey in Q. Rev. XVII. 2 He had sailed in an American to Manilla.
4. pl. Short for American stocks or shares.
1886Times Reg. Events in 1885, p. cliii, People..who..had come to believe that ‘Americans’ would never advance any more. 1897Daily News 7 Sept. 7/1 A further rise in Americans. 1905Daily Report 22 Mar. 1/2 Yankees. As predicted yesterday, Americans have quickly recovered their reaction.
5. American English; the form of English spoken in the United States.
[1782Chastellux Voyages dans l'Amérique (1786) II. 202 Vous parlez bien américain.] 1802Port Folio 28 Aug. 266/2 [A Latin verse] which my schoolmaster has translated into American. 1803J. Davis Trav. U.S. 139 What do you think of the style of Johnson, the Reviewer? It is not English that he writes, Sir; it is American. 1869Gillmore Accessible Field Sports 19 But it was evident I was not boss. [Note] American for ‘master’. 1889Kipling From Sea to Sea (1899) xvii. 368 The American I have heard up to the present, is a tongue as distinct from English as Patagonian. 1908Daily Chron. 10 June 6/7 English spoken; American understood. 1919Mencken Amer. Lang. 26 American thus shows its character in a constant experimentation,..a steady reaching out for new and vivid forms. 1966Listener 2 June 810/3 We have tried..to translate from French into American and vice versa.
Hence (in sense A. 2 or B. 2) Americana |-ˈeɪnə, -ˈɑːnə| n. pl. [see ana suffix]; Americanese |-ˈiːz| = American B. 5 (see above); Aˈmericaness, an American woman; Americanitis |-ˈaɪtɪs| [see -itis], some characteristically American penchant (esp. fig., over-weening or blatant national conceit in American achievements, etc.) or (loosely) related in some way to what is American (e.g. morbid fear of American competition or rivalry); Aˈmericanly adv., in an American manner; Aˈmericanness, the quality of being American, of having or revealing American characteristics.
1841J. G. Lockhart Let. 24 June in N. & Q. (1944) 9 Sept. 114/2 In case of accidents—the Buckingham Americana have been done already by myself. 1926Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 513/1 The trade in Americana is no common huckstering of second-hand volumes.
1882Sala Amer. Revis. II. xii. 160 A ‘bull-fiddle’..Americanese for a violoncello. 1927Observer 10 July 18/7 At Speech Day at Uppingham School..[the] Bishop of Peterborough, said..They needed to retain their English tongue and preserve it from the pollution caused by Americanese and journalese.
1838J. F. Cooper Home as Found I. vi. 93 Every true American and Americaness was expected to be at his or her post. 1883Ld. R. Gower My Reminiscences II. 75 The American Minister..Mr. Washbourn, and ‘his lady’, a pert little Americaness.
1891A. P. Call Power through Repose ii. 13 Extreme nervous tension seems to be so peculiarly American, that a German physician coming to this country to practise became puzzled by the variety of nervous disorders he was called upon to help, and finally announced his discovery of a new disease which he chose to call ‘Americanitis’. 1901Daily Chron. 18 Oct. 4/6 We are not among those who are attacked by the disease of Americanitis in its extreme form. 1904G. S. Hall Adolescence II. 411 Less perfervid Americanitis at games and in celebrating victories.
1832F. A. Butler Jrnl. II. 64 Miss ―..pronounces Italian very Americanly. 1866Howells in Harper's Mag. Jan. 325/1 For our novelists to try to write Americanly, from any motive, would be a dismal error. 1892Illustr. London News Summer No. 3 Horribly, incredibly, Americanly rich. 1906Daily Chron. 13 Apr. 4/7 Rather than ‘expect’ in this sense, let us Americanly ‘calculate’, or even ‘guess’.
1885Sat. Rev. 17 Oct. 517/2 In none of Mr. Howells' books is his Americanness more conspicuous than in his latest..The Rise of Silas Lapham. 1959Listener 30 July 177/2 The true masters of American literature, those in whose work the notion of Americanness is meaningful and definable, are not paltry imitators of European naturalism. |