| 释义 |
Uncle Sam AHD[săm] D.J.[sæm]K.K.[sæm]n.（名词）abbr. U.S., US【缩写】- The government of the United States, often personified by a representation of a tall, thin man having a white beard and wearing a blue swallow-tailed coat, red-and-white-striped trousers, and a tall hat with a band of stars:山姆大叔：指美国政府，常被拟人化为一个瘦高个的男人，长着白胡子，穿着蓝色燕尾服，红白条纹的裤子，戴着缀有一条星星的高帽子："intent on giving states greater incentive to save both their dollars and Uncle Sam's"(New York Times)“决定给予各州更大刺激以便为它们也为山姆大叔节省美元”(纽约时报)
- The American nation or its people.美国或美国人
- From U.S. 源自 U.S.
- abbr. of United States United States的缩写
注释- Obvious explanations of word origins often meet resistance simply because they are dull compared with less reliable ones.Such a conclusion seems justified on the basis of the disagreement about the origin of the nameUncle Sam. The term is first recorded in the Troy, New York,Post of September 7, 1813, and right along with it is found the explanationthat "The letters U.S. on the government waggons, &c are supposed to have given rise to it.”Nonetheless, attempts have since been made to connect the name to such people as Samuel Wilson, an army yard inspector of Troy, New York.None of these attempts, including the one involving Samuel Wilson, has been successful.This expansion of initials was carried yet further with those in the name U.S. Grant,which were variously explained as "Unconditional Surrender,” "United We Stand,” "United States,” and "Uncle Sam.”对于词语来源的明显解释经常会受到抑制，这只不过是因为比起道听途说的解释来它们总是稍显乏味。这一结论看来可以充分解释基于Uncle Sam 这一名称所产生的种种争议。 该词首次出现是在纽约特罗伊城1813年9月2日的《邮报》 ， 并附带有如下解释， “它可能来自于政府警车及百元面值钞票上的字母U.S.”然而，此后人们一直试图把这一名称与某些人物联系在一起，譬如纽约特罗伊城的一个军队车场检查员：塞缪尔·威尔逊。但包括涉及到塞缪尔·威尔逊在内的种种企图都失败了。而词首字母的意义却随着U.S.格兰特这一名字而进一步扩展，形成各种解释，如“无条件投降”、“我们坚不可分”、“美国”和“山姆大叔”
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