Editing American (word) (section)

==History==
[[File:Amerigo Vespucci (with turban).jpg|thumb|''America'' is named after Italian explorer [[Amerigo Vespucci]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-america-turns-500_N.htm?csp=34 |title=Cartographer Put 'America' on the Map 500 years Ago |work=USA Today |location=Washington, D.C. |date=April 24, 2007 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=November 30, 2008 |archive-date=January 24, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124162928/http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-america-turns-500_N.htm?csp=34 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
The name ''America'' was coined by [[Martin Waldseemüller]] from ''Americus Vesputius'', the Latinized version of the name of [[Amerigo Vespucci]] (1454–1512), the [[Republic of Florence|Florentine]] explorer who mapped South America's east coast and the [[Caribbean]] Sea in the early 16th century. Later, Vespucci's published letters were the basis of [[Waldseemüller map|Waldseemüller's 1507 map]], which is the first usage of ''America''. The adjective ''American'' subsequently denoted the New World.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/americaname_01.shtml |title=The Naming of America |work=BBC |date=March 29, 2011 |access-date=September 25, 2020 |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108114052/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/americaname_01.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 16th century, European usage of ''American'' denoted the native inhabitants of the New World.<ref name="OED">{{subscription required}} {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://dictionary.oed.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/cgi/entry/50007152?query_type=word&queryword=American&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&search_id=870u-gw0naW-7329&hilite=50007152|title=American|encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|access-date=November 27, 2008}}{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The earliest recorded use of this term in English is in [[Thomas Hacket]]'s 1568 translation of [[André Thévet]]'s book ''[[France Antarctique]]''; Thévet himself had referred to the natives as ''Ameriques''.<ref name="OED"/> In the following century, the term was extended to European settlers and their descendants in the Americas. The earliest recorded use of "English-American" dates to 1648, in [[Thomas Gage (clergyman)|Thomas Gage]]'s ''The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, a new survey of the West India's''.<ref name="OED"/>

In English, ''American'' was used especially for people in [[British America]].  [[Samuel Johnson]], the leading English lexicographer, wrote in 1775, before the United States declared independence: "That the Americans are able to bear taxation is indubitable."<ref name="OED"/> The [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence of July 1776]] refers to "[the] unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America" adopted by the "Representatives of the united States of America" on July 4, 1776.<!-- "united" is not capitalized in this phrase as it appears in the Declaration --><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_zoom_2.html|title=Declaration of Independence|publisher=National Archives|date=July 4, 1776|access-date=August 25, 2017|archive-date=October 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001160408/http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_zoom_2.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The official name of the country was reaffirmed on November 15, 1777, when the [[Second Continental Congress]] adopted the [[Articles of Confederation]], the first of which says, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'". The Articles further state:
{{Blockquote|In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the independence of America.}}
[[File:Bowen America.png|thumb|300px|left|British map of the Americas in 1744]]

Thomas Jefferson, newly elected president in May 1801 wrote, "I am sure the measures I mean to pursue are such as would in their nature be approved by every American who can emerge from preconceived prejudices; as for those who cannot, we must take care of them as of the sick in our hospitals. The medicine of time and fact may cure some of them."<ref>Letter TJ to Theodore Foster, May 1801, in Paul Leicester Ford ed., ''The Works of Thomas Jefferson'' (1905) 8:50.</ref>

In ''[[The Federalist Papers]]'' (1787–88), [[Alexander Hamilton]] and [[James Madison]] used the adjective ''American'' with two different meanings: one political and one geographic; "the American republic" in [[Federalist No. 51]] and in [[Federalist No. 70]],<ref name=federalist51>{{cite book|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist/51|chapter=The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments|title=The Federalist|number=51|author=Madison, James|archive-date=October 29, 2013|access-date=October 26, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029203249/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist/51|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=federalist70>{{cite book|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers/No._70|author=Hamilton, Alexander|chapter=The Executive Department Further Considered|title=The Federalist|number=70|archive-date=October 29, 2013|access-date=October 26, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202922/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers/No._70|url-status=live}}</ref> and, in [[Federalist No. 24]], Hamilton used ''American'' to denote the lands beyond the U.S.'s political borders.<ref name=federalist24>{{cite book | first = Alexander | last = Hamilton | title = The Federalist Papers | number = 24 | url = http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist/24l | chapter = The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered}}</ref>

Early official U.S. documents show inconsistent usage; the [[Treaty of Alliance (1778)|1778 Treaty of Alliance]] with [[France]] used "the United States of North America" in the first sentence, then "the said united States"<!-- all instances of this phrase in the Treaty leaved "united" uncapitalized -->  afterwards; "the United States of America" and "the United States of North America" derive from "the United Colonies of America" and "the United Colonies of North America". The Treaty of Peace and Amity of September 5, 1795, between the United States and the [[Barbary States]] contains the usages "the United States of North America", "citizens of the United States", and "American Citizens".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1795t.asp | title = The Barbary Treaties: Treaty of Peace and Amity | access-date = October 26, 2013 | archive-date = August 19, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150819071028/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1795t.asp | url-status = live }}</ref>{{synthesis inline|date=October 2013}}

[[File:Washington's Farewell Address.jpg|thumb|''[[Washington's Farewell Address]]'' (1796)]]
U.S. President [[George Washington]], in his [[Washington's Farewell Address|1796 ''Farewell Address'']], declaimed that "The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation."<ref>[[wikisource:Washington's Farewell Address]]</ref> Political scientist Virginia L. Arbery notes that, in his ''Farewell Address'':<blockquote> "...Washington invites his fellow citizens to view themselves now as Americans who, out of their love for the truth of liberty, have replaced their maiden names (Virginians, South Carolinians, New Yorkers, etc.) with that of “American”. Get rid of, he urges, “any appellation derived from local discriminations.” By defining himself as an American rather than as a Virginian, Washington set the national standard for all citizens. "Over and over, Washington said that America must be something set apart. As he put it to [[Patrick Henry]], 'In a word, I want an ''American'' character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ''ourselves'' and not for ''others''.'"<ref>Arbery, Virginia L. (1999), "Washington's Farewell Address and the Form of the American Regime"; In: Gary L. Gregg II and Matthew Spalding, ''Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition'', pp. 204, 206.</ref> </blockquote>As the historian [[Garry Wills]] has noted: "This was a theme dear to Washington. He wrote to [[Timothy Pickering]] that the nation 'must never forget that we are Americans; the remembrance of which will convince us we ought not to be French or English'."<ref>[[Garry Wills|Wills, Garry]] (1984), ''Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment'', pp. 92-93.</ref> Washington's countrymen subsequently embraced his exhortation with notable enthusiasm.

This semantic divergence among North American [[English-speaking world|anglophones]], however, remained largely unknown in the Spanish-American colonies. In 1801, the document titled ''Letter to American Spaniards''—published in French (1799), in Spanish (1801), and in English (1808)—might have influenced [[Venezuela]]'s [[Venezuelan Declaration of Independence|Act of Independence]] and its 1811 constitution.<ref>{{cite journal | url = http://www.histal.umontreal.ca/espanol/documentos/la%20carta%20dirigida%20a%20los%20espanoles%20americanos.htm | title = La "Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos", una carta que recorrió muchos caminos..|trans-title=The "Letter directed to Spanish Americans", a letter that traversed many paths...|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127135222/http://www.histal.umontreal.ca/espanol/documentos/la%20carta%20dirigida%20a%20los%20espanoles%20americanos.htm|archive-date=January 27, 2010|author=Bastin, Georges L. Bastin|author2=Castrillón, Elvia R.|journal=Hermeneus|number=6|year=2004|pages=276–290|language=es}}</ref>

The [[Latter-day Saints]]' [[Articles of Faith (Latter Day Saints)|Articles of Faith]] refer to the American continents as where they are to build Zion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1.10?lang=eng|title=Articles of Faith 1:10|author=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints|quote=We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent...|access-date=July 15, 2019|archive-date=July 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715032816/https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1.10?lang=eng|url-status=live}}</ref>

Common short forms and abbreviations are the ''United States'', the ''U.S.'', the ''U.S.A.'', and ''America''; colloquial versions include the ''U.S. of A.'' and ''the States''. The term ''[[Columbia (name)|Columbia]]'' (from the Columbus surname) was a popular name for the U.S. and for the entire geographic Americas; its usage is present today in the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]]'s name. Moreover, the womanly personification of Columbia appears in some official documents, including editions of the U.S. dollar.