Etymologically
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americano

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 20:02. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /a.me.riˈka.no/[1]

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

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