All-American

See also: all-American

English

Etymology

From All- +‎ American. Americanism first recorded in the 1880s; the substantive usage originating early on as an ellipsis of all-American athlete, player, team; thereafter transferred to apply broadly to people or things as in All-American boy, girl, family.

Adjective

All-American (not comparable)

(US, chiefly sports) Of a person or a team, or some other thing: regarded as the best in the United States.
He was an All-American basketball player last year.
- 1915 July, “Vanity Fair’s All-American College Basketball Team”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 4, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 30:
  After having conducted a country-wide poll of experts, Vanity Fair has chosen a truly All-American Collegiate Basketball Team. The nine picked is the result of the combined opinions of sporting editors, college coaches, graduate managers and old players from Cambridge, to Palo Alto and from Minneapolis to Atlanta.
- 1922 March 30, W[illiam] J[ames] Monilaw, “Papers Read at the Annual Convention of the Middle West Society of Physical Education, March 30, 31, April 1, 1922: President’s Address”, in James Huff McCurdy, editor, American Physical Education Review, volume XXVIII, number 2 (number 184 overall), Springfield, Mass.: American Physical Education Association, published February 1923, →OCLC, page 47, column 2:
  I would rather a boy were a fine moral character, 5 feet 3 inches tall and unable to run a 100 yards in 20 seconds, than to see him 6 feet tall, weighing 180 pounds, an all-American full-back with a set of morals that disgraces his family and community.
- 2012, Larzer Ziff, “America as Middle Class: Adolescence, Frank Merriwell, Penrod”, in All-American Boy (Discovering America; 4), Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 95:
  In 1888 [Walter] Camp selected the first All-American team, an exercise that has continued into the twenty-first century. Each member of the team is chosen because he is the best of all players nationwide at playing his particular position.
Alternative letter-case form of all-American.

Noun

All-American (plural All-Americans)

(US, chiefly sports) A person or a team, or some other thing, regarded as the best in the United States.
- 1930, “Athletics”, in George E. Leonard, editor, Michiganensian of 1930, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Published by the Senior Class of the University of Michigan, →OCLC, page 191:
  [Bennie] Oosterbaan won letters in football, basketball, and baseball, and was selected as an All-American end for three successive years.
- 2002, “Standing Tall”, in Purdue Reamer Club, compiler, A University of Tradition: The Spirit of Purdue, West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, →ISBN, page 92:
  Among the players he [Ward Lambert] coached were the legendary John Wooden, a three-time All-American; three-time All-American Charles "Stretch" Murphy; and All-Americans Don White, Ray "Candy" Miller, George Spradling, Norm Cotton, Emmett Lowery, Robert Kessler, Jewell Young, and Paul Hoffman.
- 2012, Larzer Ziff, “America as Middle Class: Adolescence, Frank Merriwell, Penrod”, in All-American Boy (Discovering America; 4), Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 95:
  [T]he All-American [American football player] in [Walter] Camp's sense is not typical but superior, the best in America at performing the specific role he has been assigned. An All-American is one-eleventh of a whole.
- 2014, Paul Hornung, Chuck Carlson, “Under the Golden Dome”, in The Paul Hornung Scrapbook, Chicago, Ill.: Triumph Books, →ISBN, page 43:
  We lost but that was probably the game that meant the most to me. It might have made me an All-American. I was named All-American that year and the actress Kim Novak was our host for the All-American luncheon and dinners. God, she was so gorgeous.
- 2014, Scott Pitoniak, “The Legend of 22”, in 100 Things Syracuse Fans should Know & Do before They Die, Chicago, Ill.: Triumph Books, →ISBN, page 243:
  In lacrosse, the legacy of greatness belongs to No. 22. And unlike football's 44, lacrosse's 22 is still in circulation and still churning out All-Americans.
Ellipsis of All-American athlete, player, team (chiefly sports), All-American boy, girl, person, or family (loosely, transferred sense)
Alternative letter-case form of all-American.

Related terms

All-America