Uncle Sam

English

WOTD – 4 July 2021

Etymology

James Montgomery Flagg’s 1917 United States Army recruitment poster featuring Uncle Sam.

From uncle +‎ Sam (diminutive of the male name Samuel), probably based on the initialism U.S. of the United States. While folk etymology suggests that the term was named after Samuel Wilson (1766–1854), a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied the United States Army with canned meat during the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom, the Oxford English Dictionary notes there is no evidence that this is the case.[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌʌŋkl̩ ˈsæm/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌʌŋkəl ˈsæm/, /ˌəŋ-/
Audio (US) (file)
Rhymes: -æm
Hyphenation: Un‧cle Sam

Proper noun

Uncle Sam

(colloquial, originally US) A personification of the United States federal government or (rare) citizens. [from early 19th c.]
Uncle Sam needs brave men and women to enlist in the Army.

Derived terms

Uncle Shmuel

Translations

personification of the United States federal government or citizens

Arabic: اَلْعَمّ سَام‎ m (al-ʿamm sām)
Armenian: Քեռի Սեմ (Kʿeṙi Sem)
Asturian: Tíu Sam m
Azerbaijani: Sem dayı
Basque: Osaba Sam
Belarusian: Дзядзька Сэм m (Dzjadzʹka Sem)
Bulgarian: Чичо Сам m (Čičo Sam)
Catalan: Oncle Sam m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 山姆大叔 (zh) (Shānmǔ dàshū)
Czech: Strýček Sam m
Estonian: Onu Sam
Finnish: Setä Samuli
French: Oncle Sam (fr) m
Galician: Tío Sam m
German: Uncle Sam m
Greek: μπάρμπα-Σαμ m (bármpa-Sam), Θείος Σαμ m (Theíos Sam)
Malay: Pakcik Sam
Icelandic: Sámur frændi m
Indonesian: Paman Sam
Italian: Zio Sam m
Japanese: アンクル・サム (Ankuru-Samu)
Korean: 엉클 샘 (Eongkeul Saem)
Latvian: Tēvocis Sems m
Lithuanian: dėdė Semas m
Malayalam: അങ്കിൾ സാം (aṅkiḷ sāṃ)
Mirandese: Tiu Sam
Navajo: Nihidáʼí Sam
Occitan: Oncle Sam m
Persian: عمو سام‎ ('amu sâm)
Polish: Wuj Sam (pl) m
Portuguese: Tio Sam (pt) m
Russian: дя́дя Сэм (ru) m (djádja Sɛm)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: Ујка Сем m
Roman: Ujka Sem m
Spanish: Tío Sam m
Swedish: Onkel Sam c
Thai: ลุงแซม (lung saem)
Turkish: Sam Amca (tr)
Ukrainian: Дядько Сем m (Djadʹko Sem)
Vietnamese: Chú Sam
Welsh: Wncl Sam m

References

“Uncle Sam, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2019; “Uncle Sam, proper n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

scalenum

[1] “Uncle Sam, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2019; “Uncle Sam, proper n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.