Early American

adjective

1. (of furniture, buildings, utensils, etc.) built or made in the U.S. in the colonial period or somewhat later.
2. built or made in imitation of works of this period.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Early American¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

As a historian of early American women and gender, however, I saw the deep and troubling roots of this rhetoric.

From Salon

Early American women were subject to laws steeped in coverture’s assumptions of gendered inequality, and these restrictions continued long after the United States won its independence from Britain.

From Salon

While husbands were charged with the protection of their wives under coverture, early American law and society justified the use of violence by husbands against wives, as a “moderate correction,” to enforce women’s submission and obedience.

From Salon

In other words, women in early American history — before, during and in the wake of the American Revolution — had greater autonomy over their own reproductive health than tens of millions of American women have today.

From Salon

This storied historical legacy helps explain the attraction of so many Americans to Trump, who claims to be bringing back the greatness of an early American system governed by wealthy white men in the name of all the true American patriots.

From Salon