America
英 [ə'merɪkə]
美 [ə'mɛrɪkɚ]
助记提示
音译“美利坚”，简称“美国”。类似的情况如：“法兰西”简称“法国”，“英格兰”简称“英国”，“德意志”简称“德国”，“俄罗斯”简称“俄国”。
意大利航海家阿梅里戈·韦斯普奇（Amerigo Vespucci）于1454年在佛罗伦萨出生，早年曾为西班牙效劳，负责装备即将起航的船只。他梦想着有朝一日能够建立哥伦布Colomb那样的业绩。后来，他转而服务于葡萄牙并四次远航到美洲。
韦斯普奇在信中向人们讲述了大西洋西南部存在着一大片陆地这个事实。通过他的记述和他所绘制的草图，人们对美洲的面貌有了大致的了解。
1507年，德国地图绘制家梅尔廷·瓦尔德塞弥勒（Martin Waldseemüller）用阿梅里戈·韦斯普奇的名字来命名上述“新大陆”，称其为“Ame rici Terra”。随后，该名称演变为“Amérique”。
“新大陆”明明是哥伦布发现的，结果却冠上了阿梅里戈的名字，对于哥伦布而言，这真是太不公平了。1510年，西班牙人做了一件旨在纪念哥伦布的事情：他们在南美洲建立了一个国家，用哥伦布的名字来命名。这便是哥伦比亚（Colombie）国名的来历。
1512年，阿梅里戈·韦斯普奇在西班牙安达卢西亚省首府塞维利亚逝世。1556年，“Américain”一词出现，被用来指称美洲的居民。
中文词源
America 美国来自意大利探险家Amerigo Vespucci 的名字。
英文词源
- America
- 1507, in Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller's treatise "Cosmographiae Introductio," from Modern Latin Americanus, after Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) who made two trips to the New World as a navigator and claimed to have discovered it. His published works put forward the idea that it was a new continent, and he was first to call it Novus Mundus "New World." Amerigo is more easily Latinized than Vespucci.
The name Amerigo is Germanic, said to derive from Gothic Amalrich, literally "work-ruler." The Old English form of the name has come down as surnames Emmerich, Emery, etc. The Italian fem. form merged into Amelia.
Colloquial pronunciation "Ameri-kay," not uncommon 19c., goes back to at least 1643 and a poem that rhymed the word with away. Amerika "U.S. society viewed as racist, fascist, oppressive, etc." first attested 1969; the spelling is German, but may also suggest the KKK.
It is interesting to remember that the song which is essentially Southern -- "Dixie" -- and that which is essentially Northern -- "Yankee Doodle" -- never really had any serious words to them. ["The Bookman," June 1910]
FREDONIA, FREDONIAN, FREDE, FREDISH, &c. &c.
These extraordinary words, which have been deservedly ridiculed here as well as in England, were proposed sometime ago, and countenanced by two or three individuals, as names for the territory and people of the United States. 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 of language is required. [Pickering, 1816]
双语例句
- 1. He's touring South America at this moment in time.
- 他此刻正在南美旅游观光。
来自柯林斯例句
- 2. America has enough firepower in the area to mount sustained air strikes.
- 美国在该地区拥有足够的火力发动持续的空中打击。
来自柯林斯例句
- 3. America imports about 190 million pounds of tea a year.
- 美国每年进口大约1.9亿磅茶叶。
来自柯林斯例句
- 4. You lived on the farm until you came back to America?
- 你回美国之前一直生活在农场吗？
来自柯林斯例句
- 5. Ford never desisted from trying to persuade him to return to America.
- 福特从未停止过劝说他返回美国。
来自柯林斯例句