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The meaning of the word American in the English language varies according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used. ''American'' is derived from ''America'', a term originally denoting all of the New World (also called ''the Americas''). In some expressions, it retains this Pan-American sense, but its usage has evolved over time and, for various historical reasons, the word came to denote people or things specifically from the United States of America. In modern English, ''Americans'' generally refers to residents of the United States; among native English speakers this usage is almost universal, with any other use of the term requiring specification.〔 (View at Bartleby )〕 However, this default use has been the source of complaint by some residents of Latin America who feel that using the term solely for the United States misappropriates it. They argue instead that "American" should be broadened to include people from anywhere in North or South America, not just the United States; these critics admit their proposed usage is uncommon. The word can be used as both a noun and an adjective. In adjectival use, it is generally understood to mean "of or relating to the United States"; for example, "Elvis Presley was an American singer" or "the American President gave a speech today". In noun form, it generally means U.S. citizen or national. The noun is rarely used in American English to refer to people not connected to the United States.〔 When used with a grammatical qualifier, the adjective ''American'' can mean "of or relating to the Americas", as in Latin American or Indigenous American. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, as in "American Spanish dialects and pronunciation differ by country", or the name of the Organization of American States. A third use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for instance, "In the 16th century, many Americans died from imported diseases during the European conquest". ==Other languages== French, German, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian speakers may use cognates of ''American'' to refer to inhabitants of the Americas or to U.S. nationals. They generally have other terms specific to U.S. nationals, such as the German ''ドイツ語:US-Amerikaner'', French ''フランス語:étatsunien'', Japanese ,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=American )〕 Arabic ' ( as opposed to ' ), and Italian '.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=statunitense )〕 These specific terms may be less common than the term ''American''.〔 In French, ''フランス語:états-unien'', ''フランス語:étas-unien'' or ''フランス語:étasunien'', from ''フランス語:États-Unis d'Amérique'' ("United States of America"), is a rarely used word that distinguishes U.S. things and persons from the adjective ''フランス語:américain'', which denotes persons and things from the United States, but may also refer to "the Americas".〔 Likewise, German's use of ''ドイツ語:U.S.-amerikanisch'' and ''ドイツ語:U.S.-Amerikaner''〔 observe said cultural distinction, solely denoting U.S. things and people. Note that these are "politically correct" terms and that in normal parlance, the adjective "American" and its direct cognates are almost always used unless the context does not render the nationality of the person clear. This differentiation is prevalent in German-speaking countries, as indicated by the style manual of the ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (one of the leading German-language newspapers in Switzerland) which dismisses the term ''ドイツ語:U.S.-amerikanisch'' as both ′unnecessary′ and ′artificial′ and recommends replacing it with ''amerikanisch''.〔''Vademecum. Der sprachlich-technische Leitfaden der «Neuen Zürcher Zeitung»'', 13th edition. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zürich 2013, p. 102, s. v. ''US-amerikanisch''.〕 The respective guidelines of the foreign ministries of Austria, Germany and Switzerland all prescribe ''Amerikaner'' and ''amerikanisch'' in reference to the United States for official usage, making no mention of ''ドイツ語:U.S.-Amerikaner'' or ''ドイツ語:U.S.-amerikanisch''.〔Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten: („Liste der Staatenbezeichnungen“ ); Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten: („Liste der Staatennamen und deren Ableitungen in den vom Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten verwendeten Formen“ ); Auswärtiges Amt: („Verzeichnis der Staatennamen für den amtlichen Gebrauch in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland“ )〕 Portuguese has ', denoting both a person or thing from the Americas and a U.S. national. For referring specifically to a U.S. national and things, some words used are ' (also spelled ', "United States person"), from ', and ' ("Yankee")—both usages exist in Brazil, but are uncommon in Portugal—but the term most often used, and the only one in Portugal, is ', even though it could, as with its Spanish equivalent, apply to Canadians, Mexicans, etc. as well. In Spanish, ' denotes geographic and cultural origin in the New World, as well as (infrequently) a U.S. citizen; The fourth definition of ' is defined as "United States person" ().}} the more common term is ' ("United States person"), which derives from ' ("United States of America"). The Spanish term ' ("North American") is frequently used to refer things and persons from the United States, but this term can also denote people and things from Canada, Mexico, and the rest of North America. In other languages, however, there is no possibility for confusion. For example, the Chinese word for "U.S. national ' ()〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=美国人 )〕 is derived from a word for the United States, ', where ' is an abbreviation for ''Yàměilìjiā'' ("America") and ' is "country".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=United States )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=America )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=country )〕 The name for the American continent is ', from ' plus ' ("continent").〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=continent )〕 Thus, a ' is an American in the continent sense, and a ' is an American in the U.S. sense. Conversely, in Czech, there is no possibility for disambiguation. ''Američan'' (m.) and ''američanka'' (f.) can refer to persons from the United States or from the continent of America, and there is no specific word capable of distinguishing the two meanings. For this reason, the latter meaning is very rarely used, and word ''američan(ka)'' is used almost exclusively to refer to persons from the US. The usage is exactly parallel to the English word. Korean and Vietnamese also use unambiguous terms, with Korean having ' () for the country versus ' () for the continent,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=america )〕 and Vietnamese having ' for the country versus ' for the continent. Japanese has such terms as well (' [ versus ' []), but they are found more in newspaper headlines than in speech, where ' predominates. In Swahili, ' means specifically the United States, and ' is a U.S. national, whereas the international form ' refers to the continent, and ' would be an inhabitants thereof.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=United States )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=amerika )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=American )〕 Likewise, the Esperanto word ' refers to the continent. For the country there is the term '. Thus, a citizen of the United States is an ', whereas an ' is an inhabitant of the Americas.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ameriko )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Usono )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=usonano )〕〔 (【引用サイトリンク】title=Reta Vortaro )〕 In Hungarian the term amerikai (american) refers to a person or a thing from the United States. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「American (word)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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