[f. prec. + -ISM.]
1. Attachment to, or political sympathy with, the United States.
1808. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 114. I knew your Americanism too well.
1853. Mary Howitt, trans. Bremer’s Homes N. World, I. 160. What constitutes noble republicanism and Americanism.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xlii. The leaven of Americanism and European Radicalism.
2. Any thing peculiar to, or characteristic of, the United States.
1833. Edin. Rev., LVII. 451. The existence of some peculiar Americanism of character, and even language.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Sol., ii. 232. I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit.
3. esp. A word or phrase peculiar to, or extending from, the United States; (the common, and app. earliest, use of the word in Great Britain.)
a. 1794. Witherspoon, Wks., 1802, IV. 460. The first class I call Americanisms, by which I understand an use of phrases or terms, or a construction of sentences, even among persons of rank and education, different from the use of the same terms or phrases, or the construction of similar sentences, in Great Britain.
1826. Miss Mitford, Our Village, Ser. II. (1863), 352. Society has been progressing (if I may borrow that expressive Americanism) at a very rapid rate.
1833. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), III. 470. There are many Americanisms which in the course of time will work their way into the language of England.
