2021-04-30 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – America & American
2021-04-30
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – America & American
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Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง America = ‘uh-MER-i-kuh’
ออกเสียง American = ‘uh-MER-i-kuhn’
Dictionary.com
Why Is It Called America, Not Columbusia?
American place names
can sound pretty confusing even to native English speakers.
From Philadelphia (Greek for “loving brother”) to Chicago ‘
(Algonquian Fox for “place of the wild onion”),
the map of America is an etymological hodge-podge.
For a clear example,
take three adjacent states in New England.
Vermont is an inverted, rough translation of the French
for “green mountain,” mont vert.
Massachusetts is derived from
the name of the Native American people
who lived in the area, the Algonquian Massachusett.
The word meant “at the large hill.”
New Hampshire comes from a county in southern England.
And why do we call a turkey turkey?
Learn about the history of nation’s favorite bird,
the turkey, here.
But what about America itself?
Why aren’t
the continents of North and South America
called “Columbusia” after Christopher Columbus?
The word America comes from a lesser-known navigator
and explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.
Who made the decision? A cartographer.
Like Columbus, Vespucci traveled to the New World
(first in 1499 and again in 1502).
Unlike Columbus, Vespucci wrote about it.
Vespucci’s accounts of his travels were
published between 1502 and 1504
and were widely read in Europe.
Columbus was also hindered
because he thought he had discovered another route to Asia;
he didn’t realize America was a whole newcontinent.
Vespucci, however, realized that America
was not contiguous with Asia.
He was also the first to call itthe New World,
or Novus Mundus in Latin.
With the discovery of this “New World,”
maps were being redrawn all the time.
No one really knew what land was where or how big it was.
Because of this confusion,
maps from the 1500s are incredibly inaccurate and contradictory.
(They also often feature drawings of mythical sea creatures.)
From Amerigo to America
In 1507, a German cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller
was drawing a map of the world—a very serious map.
He called it the Universalis Cosmographia,
or Universal Cosmography.
Comprised of 12 wooden panels,
it was eight feet wide and four-and-a-half feet tall.
He based his drawings of the New World on Vespucci’s
published travelogues.
All countries were seen as feminine(like her lady Liberty today),
So, Waldseemüller used a feminine,
Latinized form of Amerigo to name the new continents “America.”
Cartographers tended to copy one another’s choices,
So, Columbus was left off the map. The rest is history.
Today, an original of Waldseemüller’s map
is permanentlyon display at
the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Dictionary.com
“America The Beautiful” Lyrics You Probably Don’t Know
“America the Beautiful” isn’t the United States’s national anthem
(that honor goes to “The Star-Spangled Banner”),
but it’s arguably just as well loved.
The song promotes the idea of a bountiful country
with spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains majesty,
and a fruited plain.
But do you know which scenic lands
inspired author Katharine Lee Bates
to write the immediately popular lyrics?
Or, for that matter,
what Bates meant by “alabaster cities”?
The origin of “America the Beautiful”
In 1893, Bates, a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts,
went to Colorado Springs to teach a summer class on Chaucer.
Her cross-country travels
took her through much of the heartland in the Midwest,
as well as
the World’s Columbian Exposition happening in Chicago that year.
The exploration didn’t stop
once she arrived in Colorado.
Toward the end of her class,
Bates took a wagon more than 14,000 feet
up to the top of nearby Pikes Peak
on the front range of the Rocky Mountains.
The views were, and are, expansive
—you can see
Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Kansas
from the mountain top on a clear day.
Bates later wrote in her diary that
the view showed
“the sea-like expanse of fertile country,” and that
“all the wonder of America seemed displayed there.”
Her experiences inspired her to write a poem called
“Pikes Peak” before she left Colorado.
Two years later, in 1895, a religious Boston weekly newspaper called
The Congregationalist published the poem under the title
“America.” Fittingly, it was published on July 4.
The poem wasn’t yet set to music, but by some accounts,
as many as 75 song versions existed by 1900.
Bates tweaked the lyrics a bit to add the lines
“And crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea”
in 1904, and the poem was republished in
the Boston Evening Transcript.
She self-edited, once again in 1910,
and changed the title to “America the Beautiful.”
The latest version
was set to Samuel A. Ward’s 1882 hymn “Materna”
(also known as “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem”).
The accompaniment stuck, and that version
is the one Americans know and love today.
What inspired the lyrics to “America the Beautiful”?
Bates drew from what she saw in Massachusetts, Colorado,
and everything in between to write her poem.
The “amber fields of grain” in the Midwest, for example,
and the “purple mountain majesties”
that she viewed from her perch on Pikes Peak.
The man-made aspects of the country inspired Bates as well.
The line “thine alabaster cities gleam”
is a reference
to the buildings she witnessed at the World’s Columbian Exposition
(alabaster is a type of white rock often used for ornamental carvings).
Frequent references to God
show Bates’s strong religious beliefs.
The lines “O beautiful for pilgrim feet /
Whose stern, impassioned stress”
recall the history of
Europeans landing in Massachusetts,
while the stanza beginning
“O beautiful for heroes proved / In liberating strife”
references the country’s soldiers
“Who more than self their country loved.”
Which lyrics have changed over time?
The original poem published in 1895
was a little different than the one we’re familiar with today.
Here’s the earliest first verse:
O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
Till souls wax fair
as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!
And here are the lyrics as we know them today:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Word History
Mapping Out the Naming of 'America'
Columbus didn't name it, but his name was used at one time.
Who Is Amerigo Vespucci?
German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller
is credited with first using the name America in 1507
on a large 12-panel map
based on traveling accounts of explorers of the New World,
and in particular those of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
The map, entitled Universalis Cosmographia,
was included in the book Cosmographiae Introductio
(Introduction of Cosmography)
along with a translation to Latin
of Quattuor Americi Vespuccij navigations
(Four Voyages of Americo Vespucci),
which is said to be written by Vespucci
but that some historians believe is a forgery.
Waldseemüller labeled the part of the world
that he envisioned as explored by Vespucci,
America, feminizing the Latin form
of Vespucci's given name, Americus.
He chose the feminine form to be consistent with
the Latinized names of other countries at the time,
such as Europa and Asia.
It was geographer Gerardus Mercator who extended
the name America to include all of the Western Hemisphere.
Beginning in the 17th century,
America was used metaphorically by English writers
to refer to a place in which one longs to reach.
Licence my roaving hands, and let them go /
Before, behind, between, above, below. /
O my America! my new-found-land /
My Kingdom, safeliest when with one man man'd.
— John Donne, "To His Mistress Going to Bed," 1654
What About Columbus?
Columbia (from the name of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus,
who was, incidentally, a friend of Vespucci's)
was also used as a substitute for America, but that, deservedly so
(in retrospect), never caught on.
I don't know where this country of yours is, but I'm for it.
I guess it must be a branch of the United States,
though, for the poetry guys and the schoolmarms
call us Columbia, too, sometimes.
— O. Henry, "The Gold That Glittered," 1910
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
6 Filthy Americanisms that Aren't Actually American
Are Americanism
Rank and Vile, or Odious and Vulgar?
The answer is... "yes."
The American variety of the English language
has contributed a great number of interesting
and peculiar words to our vocabulary.
Words such as
riproarious (“hilarious”),
flummadiddle (“nonsense”),
and bodacious (“noteworthy”),
all of which first appeared in the United States
in the 19th century.
Who doesn’t love a nice, juicy Americanism?
A great number of people, it turns out,
many of whom are from the United Kingdom.
British writers have been mocking Americanisms
forhundreds of years now,
although in some cases the objects of their derision
are not actually from North America (or even commonly used here).
Which is fine,
since an Americanism needn’t have originated in America;
it is defined as
“a characteristic feature of American English
especially as contrasted with British English.”
Following are
7 cases where British writers have accused
some wordof having socially awkward parentage.
Desiderate
Definition: to entertain or express a wish to have or attain
What the learned gentleman chiefly desiderates
(a vile Americanism for wants)
is more concentration of purpose;
like water spread upon a plain his great powers are lost by diffusion.
—The London Magazine, 1 Dec. 1826
Desiderate smells a bit like one of those jocular
19th century Americanisms, perhaps coined in the same region
that gave us conversate or absquatulate.
It is not.
The word has been in use since the beginning of the 17th century,
and for the first century or two of its life
was primarily employed by British writers.
It comes from the Latin desiderare (“to desire”),
which is also
the source of the lovely (and obscure) word desiderium
(“an ardent desire or longing; especially:
a feeling of loss or grief for something lost”).
Rubbish
Definition: British: to express disapproval of: disparage
We tend not to convert nouns into verbs
(avoid "to hospitalise," "to scapegoat," "to rubbish," "to debut").
—Entry on Americanisms, BBC News Style Guide (Web)
It is doubtless helpful to BBC reporters to know that
they should not use rubbish as a verb.
It is, however, somewhat curious
that this admonition should appear in a section
devoted to Americanisms,
as we likewise do not use the word in this fashion.
Our Unabridged Dictionary provides a definition for this word
as a verb, noting that its use is British.
Although a number of UK-based lexicographic concerns
do offer definitions for rubbish as a verb,
the word is curiously absent from most dictionaries
compiled in the US.
Because it is not an Americanism.
So, stop rubbishing us about it (is this how it’s used?)
David Beckham has rubbished claims that he and wife
Victoria stay together because of "brand Beckham".
—BBC.com, 29 Jan. 2017
Ridiculosity
Definition: the quality or state of being ridiculous
I enjoy Americanisms. I suspect even some Americans use them
in a tongue-in-cheek manner?
"That statement was the height of ridiculosity".
—Bob (Edinburgh), BBC News Magazine, 20 July 2011
Ridiculosity was a submission entered in an article
in the BBC News Magazine, titled “Americanisms:
50 of your Most Noted Examples.”
While this article was a splendid way
to encourage reader participation
(there were many quibbling submissions sent in),
it did not appear to have checked the offending words
to see whether they had in fact originated in America.
There is no way to be certain of this,
but we suspect that many Americans would be happy
if we were able to claim parentage of
a specimen such as ridiculosity.
Sadly, this is not the case,
for the word has been in use in British writing
since the middle of the 17th century, well before we began to use it.
Human
Definition: a bipedal primate mammal (Homo sapiens): a person
Mr. Farjeon writes without distinction;
he disfigures his first page by the peculiarly rank Americanism
of using “human” as a substantive,
and some of his sentences would be
the better for a more bracing sense of grammar.
—The Saturday Review (London, England),
31 Jan. 1891
The 19th century review quoted above
does a fine job of sneering at poor Mr. Farjeon,
and points must be awarded for style
(“peculiarly rank Americanism” is a nice turn of phrase).
However, points must also be deducted for inaccuracy.
Whether the use of human as a substantive
(“a word or word group functioning syntactically as a noun”) is “rank”
is subject to debate;
what is not is the history of the word.
Human was first used in English as an adjective (around 1450),
and later began to be used as a noun.
The noun form has existed for considerably more time
than America has (our records indicate it goes back to at least 1507).
Reliable
Definition: suitableor fit to be relied on: dependable
Reliable isnot an Americanism;
it has been used to mean “fit to be relied on”
since the middle of the 16th century.
The Oxford English Dictionary does note, however,
that the sense of the word which is often used
to refer to dependability in goods or services
does appear to have originated inthe United States.
Spellbound
Definition: heldby or as if by a spell
The occasion was the annual dinner of the Canning and Chatham
Clubs, the nursery, as their names imply,
of undergraduate Conservatism;
and for nearly an hour Lord Cairns held us,
to use an odious Americanism, spellbound.
—James Atlay Beresford, The Victorian Chancellors, 1908
When one encounters a sneering comment
about an apparent Americanism, such as the one above,
it often appears that the author is using Americanism
to mean “word which I greatly dislike,”
as opposed to “a characteristic feature of American English.”
There is no indication that
spellbound is peculiar to this side of the pond,
and our earliest evidence of the word in use
comes from a distinctly British source,
the playwright and actor David Garrick.
Belittle
Definition: to speak slightingly of: disparage
In all fairness to the British quibblers and scolds
who have populated this list
the word belittle does appear to be a genuineAmericanism,
coined by one of our most famous citizens, Thomas Jefferson.
It is included in this list in large part
due to the marvelously splenetic tone of the complainant;
perhaps a day will come again when people quibble
about language use with the phrase
“O spare, we beseech you, our mother-tongue!”
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
American
Many Canadians and Latin Americans are understandably irritated
when U.S. citizens refer to themselves simply as “Americans.”
Canadians(and only Canadians) use the term “North American”
to include themselvesin a two-member group
with their neighbor to the south,
though geographers usually include Mexico in North America.
When addressing an international audience
composed largely of people from the Americas,
it is wise to consider their sensitivities.
However, it is pointless to try to ban this usage in all contexts.
Outside of the Americas,
“American”is universally understood
to referto things relating to the U.S.
There is no good substitute.
Brazilians, Argentineans, and Canadians
all have unique termsto refer to themselves.
None of them refer routinely to themselves as “Americans”
outside of contexts likethe “Organization of American States.”
Frank Lloyd Wright promoted “Usonian,” but it never caught on.
For better or worse, “American” is standard English
for “citizen or resident
of the United States of America.”
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