americano

Forms

americano (feminine americana, masculine plural americani, feminine plural americane)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian America + -ano.^[2][3][4][1] The same derivative is French américain and Spanish americano.^[3]

The continent is named after the navigator Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). The name was coined by the geographer Martin Waldseemüller in his Cosmographiae Introductio, printed at Saint-Dié in 1507, and at first meant only South America.^[5][6] The LEI explains the Latin feminine form, stressed on the third syllable from the end, by names such as Latin Africa and Gallica;^[5][6] DEI instead takes the Italian name as an adaptation of French Amérique, on the pattern of Attica.^[5][6] Vespucci himself called the continent the New World, and the official Spanish name until the end of the 16th century was Spanish Indias.^[6] Nocentini notes the name on Dutch nautical charts of the first half of the 16th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Ferdinando Galiani in 1751, with the sense “of America”, often referring to the United States.^[7][3][2] Zingarelli dates the word to 1697.^[8]

Semantic evolution

A rare Venetian almerigo “American” is recorded in 1609.^[5] Americano also named an emigrant who came home from America with money, and America itself became a byword for easy riches, whence zio d'America “a rich uncle overseas” from 1891.^[9][5] In some dialects the word came to mean “strange, unknown”: Sicilian calls the bullfinch pàssaru americanu, and in Trentino unidentifiable birds are osèi mericani.^[9] On the islands of the Tuscan archipelago the bluefish is americano, because fishermen saw it appear with the American convoys of the Second World War.^[10]

As a noun americano names an aperitif of vermouth, bitters and soda from 1908.^[7][9] Derivatives followed: americanata (1877), americanismo (1882), from English, americanista (1892) and americanizzare (1922), from French.^[3][5] The phrase all'americana gave confronto all'americana “identity parade” and truffa all'americana, a swindle by someone posing as a rich foreigner.^[8][11]

Timeline

• 1697 – Zingarelli's date for americano.^[8]
• 1751 – Ferdinando Galiani uses americano.^[7][2]
• 1877 – Americanata is recorded.^[3]
• 1882 – Americanismo is recorded.^[3]
• 1908 – Panzini records americano as the name of an aperitif.^[7]
• 1922 – Americanizzare is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the Americas: i grandi fiumi americani.^{[2][12][8][13]}
2. Of the United States, American: Ha studiato in un'università americana.^{[2][12][4][1]}

Noun

1. An American, a native or inhabitant of the Americas, especially of the United States: Molti americani visitano Firenze ogni estate.^[2][8][1]
2. American English (singular only).^[4][8][13]
3. An aperitif of red vermouth, bitters and soda with lemon peel.^[2][4][13]
4. (accounting) A kind of general ledger showing the accounts of the subsidiary ledgers.^[2][8][13]

Word family

• americana
• americanata
• americanismo
• americanista
• americanizzare
• americanizzazione
• antiamericano
• interamericano

Related words

• America
• angloamericano
• French américain

Usage notes

All'americana means “in the American manner”;^[12] buffet all'americana is a buffet where guests eat standing.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 762
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
7. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
10. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET
11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana