Americanism

plural Americanisms

1. countableuncountableA custom peculiar to the United States or the Americans.

   Synonyms: Usonianism

2. countablerhetoricuncountableA word, phrase or linguistic feature originating from or specific to American English usage.

   Mrs. Morton was well known for her Americanisms, her swagger dinner parties, and beautiful Paris gowns.

   1908, Baroness Orczy, “An Unparalleled Outrage”, in The Old Man in the Corner

   3 more examples

   A lot of other supposed Americanisms aren't Americanisms either. It's sometimes thought that "transportation" instead of the good old "transport" is an example of that annoying US habit of bolting on needless extra syllables to perfectly good words, but "transportation" is used in British English from 1540.

   2013 May 13, Steven Poole, “Americanisms are often closer to home than we imagine”, in The Guardian

   “Oh come off it, honey bun. You know me. I never did the ordinary.” / “Don’t call me honey bun,” said Mum. “I don’t need any of your Americanisms in this house, thank you very much.”

   2015, Joy Cowley, chapter 13, in The Bakehouse, Wellington: Gecko Press, →ISBN, page 101

   There has been much spluttering about the prince’s use of ‘Americanisms’ in a letter to Emmanuel Macron, but the truth is more complicated […] So, where do we get the idea that -ize is an Americanism?

   2019 April 18, David Shariatmadari, “Ize on the prize: is Prince Charles the last guardian of British spelling?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: Yankeeism

3. countableuncountableA preference for the United States and the ideas it represents.

   "The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponent is that our plan will put America first," Trump said. "Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo."

   2016 July 22, Aaron Blake, “Donald Trump’s strategy in three words: ‘Americanism, not globalism’”, in Washington Post

   Synonyms: Americophilia · Antonyms: anti-Americanism

4. countableuncountableCatholicismA putative current of Catholicism in the United States identified and condemned as heretical by Rome in the late 19th century, chiefly characterized by support for secularism and American institutions above Catholic doctrine.

   Moreover, the enthusiasm with which Hecker’s ideas had been received among Catholic liberals in France served to increase Leo XIII’s suspicion that Americanism was yet another attempt, not so very different from the Gallicanisms of the past, to assert the independence of a national church from Rome.

   1999, Michael W. Cuneo, The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism, →ISBN, page 8