America
英 [ə'merɪkə]
美 [ə'mɛrɪkɚ]
助記提示
音譯“美利堅”，簡稱“美國”。類似的情況如：“法蘭西”簡稱“法國”，“英格蘭”簡稱“英國”，“德意誌”簡稱“德國”，“俄羅斯”簡稱“俄國”。
意大利航海家阿梅裏戈·韋斯普奇（Amerigo Vespucci）於1454年在佛羅倫薩出生，早年曾為西班牙效勞，負責裝備即將起航的船隻。他夢想著有朝一日能夠建立哥倫布Colomb那樣的業績。後來，他轉而服務於葡萄牙並四次遠航到美洲。
韋斯普奇在信中向人們講述了大西洋西南部存在著一大片陸地這個事實。通過他的記述和他所繪製的草圖，人們對美洲的麵貌有了大致的了解。
1507年，德國地圖繪製家梅爾廷·瓦爾德塞彌勒（Martin Waldseemüller）用阿梅裏戈·韋斯普奇的名字來命名上述“新大陸”，稱其為“Ame rici Terra”。隨後，該名稱演變為“Amérique”。
“新大陸”明明是哥倫布發現的，結果卻冠上了阿梅裏戈的名字，對於哥倫布而言，這真是太不公平了。1510年，西班牙人做了一件旨在紀念哥倫布的事情：他們在南美洲建立了一個國家，用哥倫布的名字來命名。這便是哥倫比亞（Colombie）國名的來曆。
1512年，阿梅裏戈·韋斯普奇在西班牙安達盧西亞省首府塞維利亞逝世。1556年，“Américain”一詞出現，被用來指稱美洲的居民。
中文詞源
America 美國來自意大利探險家Amerigo Vespucci 的名字。
英文詞源
- 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]
雙語例句
- 1. He's touring South America at this moment in time.
- 他此刻正在南美旅遊觀光。
來自柯林斯例句
- 2. America has enough firepower in the area to mount sustained air strikes.
- 美國在該地區擁有足夠的火力發動持續的空中打擊。
來自柯林斯例句
- 3. America imports about 190 million pounds of tea a year.
- 美國每年進口大約1.9億磅茶葉。
來自柯林斯例句
- 4. You lived on the farm until you came back to America?
- 你回美國之前一直生活在農場嗎？
來自柯林斯例句
- 5. Ford never desisted from trying to persuade him to return to America.
- 福特從未停止過勸說他返回美國。
來自柯林斯例句