Americanism（n.）
1781年，普林斯顿大学校长约翰·威瑟斯普恩（John Witherspoon）创造了“American + -ism”这个词，用于指代在北美使用的与英国用法不同的词语或短语。（American English “美国人所说的英语”于1806年被韦伯斯特（Webster）记录下来。）“Americanism”在“对美国的依恋或偏爱”的意义上，于1797年被托马斯·杰斐逊（Thomas Jefferson）的著作中所证实。
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]
我对爱丁堡评论家们的反应感到有些失望，并对自己的判断产生了怀疑，因为他们是这个时代最有才华的评论家，却反对将新词引入英语中； 他们特别担心美国作家会玷污它。当然，如此庞大的人口，分布在如此广阔的土地上，拥有如此多样的气候、生产和艺术，必须扩大他们的语言，使其能够表达所有的思想，无论是新的还是旧的。[杰斐逊于1813年8月16日致约翰·沃尔多（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]
杰斐逊似乎不仅想挑战英语的主权，还想挑战英语剑的主权，因此在他需要时从不犹豫创造新词； 虽然他的许多新词在语法上有问题，而且混合了多种语言，但它们很有表现力，很快就变得家喻户晓。[休·布莱尔·格里格斯比（Hugh Blair Grigsby），《1776年弗吉尼亚会议》，1855年]
该词起源时间：1781年