1507, in Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller's treatise
"Cosmographiae Introductio," from Mod.L.
Americanus, after Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) who made two trips to the New World as a navigator and claimed to have discovered it. His published works put forward the idea that it was a new continent, and he was first to call it
Novus Mundus "New World."
Amerigo is more easily Latinized than
Vespucci. The name
Amerigo is Gmc., said to derive from Goth.
Amalrich, lit. "work-ruler." The O.E. form of the name has come down as surnames
Emmerich,
Emery, etc. It. fem. form merged into
Amelia.
Amerika "U.S. society viewed as racist, fascist, oppressive, etc." first attested 1969; the spelling is Ger., but may also suggest the
KKK.