A way of speaking peculiar to this country.--Witherspoon.
"By Americanism," says Dr. Witherspoon, "I understand a use of phrases or terms, or a construction of sentences, even among persons of rank and education, different from the use of the same terms or phrases, or the construction of similar sentences, in Great Britain. In this sense it is exactly similar in its formation and signification to the word Scotticism."--Works, Vol. IV. p. 82.