Taken from the Accademia della Crusca
The refusal to consider the adjective and noun American in reference to the United States alone, and to replace the entry American with American in this case, may seem justified. And one can understand someone’s perplexity when they hear of Leo XIV as “the first American Pope”, given that Argentina, the country of origin of Pope Bergoglio, is also part of the Americas, like all Central, South and North American countries. A brief examination of the entries American and American in some Italian and English vocabularies illustrates multifaceted meanings and a gradual semantic evolution of the term American throughout history.
American as a masculine and feminine adjective and noun is used to designate indigenous peoples, from North to South of the continent (Canada, USA, Central America, South America), indigenous languages and Anglo-American. In current language the entry refers to the inhabitants of the American continent, especially the United States (GDLI, Vocabolario Treccani, GRADIT, LEI). The term derives from America, a term coined in honor of Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) by Martin Waldseemueller for his Cosmographiae Introductio published in 1507 (LEI).
These multiple historical meanings correspond to the definitions found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED): the English entry American originally designates the natives or residents of America, especially of the British North American colonies, of European origin, while today it refers above all to the natives or citizens of the United States. The definitions in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary are similar but more limited: the noun American, in use since 1568, designates the Amerindians of North or South America; natives or residents of North or South America; natives, residents or citizens of the USA; the Anglo-Americans. The adjective expresses what is related to America and what is related to the United States and its territories. It should be noted that Le Grand Robert de la langue française (2nd ed. edited by Alain Rey, Le Robert, Paris, 1988) distinguishes sv Américain the native inhabitants before the arrival of the Europeans (North America, Mexico, Central America, South America) from the inhabitants of the United States: the latter designation would have spread during the 19th century, to the exclusion of the other nations of the continent. Similarly, LEI (vol. II, 1985, pp.761-768) notes the frequent reference of the adjective American to the United States since 1751.
The dictionaries consulted also include for American the meaning of ‘aperitif based on red vermouth, bitters and a lemon or orange peel’ dated in the Deonomasticon Italicum (DI) by Wolfgang Schweickard (Tubingen, M. Niemeyer, 1997-2006) to 1908. The GDLI and LEI add the meaning of ’emigrant returned home from America’, used according to the LEI from 1918 (dating confirmed by the DI) and that is in the period of mass Italian emigration.
According to brush 1881 in an article in the newspaper “La Stampa”. Historically, American seems to be a neologism that emerged during the years of fascism. According to Le Nouveau Robert (Paris, Le Dictionnaires Robert, 1993) the adjective états-unien, -ienne dates back to 1955.
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