Americanism 的詞源

1781年，普林斯頓大學校長約翰·威瑟斯普恩（John Witherspoon）創造了“American + -ism”這個詞，用於指代在北美使用的與英國用法不同的詞語或短語。（American English “美國人所說的英語”於1806年被韋伯斯特（Webster）記錄下來。）“Americanism”在“對美國的依戀或偏愛”的意義上，於1797年被托馬斯·傑斐遜（Thomas Jefferson）的著作中所證實。

I have been not a little disappointed, and made suspicious of my own judgment, on seeing the Edinburgh Reviews, the ablest critics of the age, set their faces against the introduction of new words into the English language; they are particularly apprehensive that the writers of the United States will adulterate it. Certainly so great growing a population, spread over such an extent of country, with such a variety of climates, of productions, of arts, must enlarge their language, to make it answer its purpose of expressing all ideas, the new as well as the old. [Jefferson to John Waldo, Aug. 16, 1813] 

我對愛丁堡評論家們的反應感到有些失望，並對自己的判斷產生了懷疑，因爲他們是這個時代最有才華的評論家，卻反對將新詞引入英語中； 他們特別擔心美國作家會玷污它。當然，如此龐大的人口，分佈在如此廣闊的土地上，擁有如此多樣的氣候、生產和藝術，必須擴大他們的語言，使其能夠表達所有的思想，無論是新的還是舊的。[傑斐遜於1813年8月16日致約翰·沃爾多（John Waldo）]

Jefferson, as if disposed to assail the sovereignty of the English tongue as well as the sovereignty of the English sword, never hesitated to coin a word when it suited his purposes so to do; and though many of his brood are questionable on the ground of analogy and as intermixing languages; yet they were expressive, and became familiar. [Hugh Blair Grigsby, "The Virginia Convention of 1776," 1855]

傑斐遜似乎不僅想挑戰英語的主權，還想挑戰英語劍的主權，因此在他需要時從不猶豫創造新詞； 雖然他的許多新詞在語法上有問題，而且混合了多種語言，但它們很有表現力，很快就變得家喻戶曉。[休·布萊爾·格里格斯比（Hugh Blair Grigsby），《1776年弗吉尼亞會議》，1855年]