un-American

See also: unamerican

English

Alternative forms

• unamerican

Etymology

From un- +‎ American.

Adjective

un-American (comparative more un-American, superlative most un-American)

1. Contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of the United States; anti-American.
   • 1948 August, Aldous Huxley, Ape and Essence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC:

     Besides, how can you talk about church politics? It would certainly be anti-Catholic and might easily become un-American.

   • 1968 July 7, Telford Taylor, “Who's Un-American Now?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     In 1959 ex-President Truman, never one to mince words, called the Committee the “most un-American thing in the country today.” Mr. Goodman strongly disagrees: “…unless one is prepared to blank out large and significant patches of our history, there is nothing un-American about the Un-American Activities Committee.”

   • 1972, Mike Gravel, Citizen Power: A People's Platform, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page xii:

     Surely there is nothing strange or new or threatening about such a platform. It will distress only those who have the essentially un-American view that change itself is frightening and should be avoided at all costs.

   • 2012 February 17, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting Bruce Springsteen, “Bruce Springsteen: ‘What was done to my country was un-American’”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     "What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian. "There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism."

   • 2018 March 19, Charles M. Blow, “Trump: The Un-American President”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     It is an awful fact that the most powerful man in America may also represent the worst of America. In a way, Trump is the un-American president.

   • 2022 June 28, Luke Broadwater, Michael S. Schmidt, quoting Cassidy Hutchinson, “Trump Urged Armed Supporters to Capitol, White House Aide Testifies”, in The New York Times‎^[4], →ISSN:

     “As an American, I was disgusted,” she said. “It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”

2. (informal, US) Incivil, immoral. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. Unrelated to America or the U.S.; untypical of U.S. mores or habits; non-American, not American.
   • 2017, David Thomson, "Rebecca: Welcome to the Haunted House", The Criterion Collection:

     [About British filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock:] It’s not often addressed in criticism, but Hitchcock was un-American enough to dwell on the uneasiness or the unreliability of heroes.

Usage notes

• GPO manual recommends using a hyphen when prefixing capitalized words except when usage dictates otherwise.

Derived terms

• HUAC (“House Un-American Activities Committee”, initialism)
• un-Americanness

Translations

contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of United States

• Danish: uamerikansk
• Dutch: on-Amerikaans (nl)
• German: unamerikanisch