Usona

See also: usona

English edit

An acronym of the United States of North America, a 19th-century name for the United States of America, variously attributed to "a St. Louis professor" or "a Canadian, James P. Murray of Toronto".^[1]^[2]

Usona

(obsolete) The United States of America.
- 1899 August 3, “German letter (Chemnitz, July 15, 1899)”, in American Wool and Cotton Reporter, volume 13, page 924 [24]:
  Usona (U. S. of A.), a land that looked like a lost land to us two years ago, was our biggest buyer, says a local expert.
- 1905 July 15, “The New U.S. Pharmacopœia”, in The Pharmaceutical Journal, London, page 70:
  Everything of value recording during recent years by British pharmacists has been incorporated in the monographs, and it is interesting to notice how freely the pages of our own only commentary on the British Pharmacopœia—'Pharmacopedia,' to wit—have been drawn upon for information. But this was only to be expected, since our brethren in Usona are nothing if not careful and judicious compilers. Much original work has doubtless been done by American pharmacists engaged in the production of the new national medicine-book, but the volume is, nevertheless, best described as an excellent compilation.

Several authors at the turn of the 20th century advocated this as a word that should be used instead of the word "American", which could also refer to citizens of any country in North, South, or Central America. It did not gain wide acceptance: “the natural impatience of a citizen of the United States at the idea of the word American referring to any one except himself and his fellow citizens choked off any chance of life the expression [Usona] might have had at that time.”^[4]

United States of North America (obsolete, abbreviated)

^ The Flaming Sword, vol. 13 no. 33, 1898, page 9: “A St. Louis professor endeavors to invent a new name for the United States, a cabalistic affair, USONA, composed of the initial letters of the words United States of North America ; the people he would designate as Usonians.”
^ Charles Alphonso Smith (1919) New Words Self-defined, page 198: ““As a matter of fact, the name Usona […] was first proposed by a Canadian, James P. Murray of Toronto, in 1885.” (quoted from a letter in the New York Times, 20 July, 1918)”
^ Erwin Gudde & William Bright, 2004. California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names
^ The Gateway, 1907, page 25

Usono +‎ -a

Usona (accusative singular Usonan, plural Usonaj, accusative plural Usonajn)

of the United States of America
- 1908, August, “Filipina Esperantisto”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 13 of vol II, no 1(13):
  Usona submarŝipo “Shark” enakviganta en la golfeto de Manila, F. I., apud Cavite, la 9^an de Julio, 1908^a, de la flanko de la Usona vaporŝipo “Caesar” kiu ĝin alportis de Usono.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)