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Harrap's New Shorter French and English Dictionary, Ed. 1985 [Harrap's Shorter French Dictionary], points up adjectival "Anglican" as an Americanism for "English," and "Anglicanism" as an AmE equivalent for "Anglomania," i.e. an excessive respect for English customs, etc. source

Though RH, MW, WNW, and the AED all validate the sense "English" of adjectival "Anglican" [of or pertaining to England, its inhabitants, or the English language] source source source source, I can't seem to find a US dictionary online to state the sense "Anglomania" of "Anglicanism" as fact.

Does adjectival "Anglican" actually have (or once had) currency in AmE to refer to what pertains to, or is characteristic of England, or its inhabitants, its institutions, etc.?

Also, is any one of you familiar with "Anglicanism" used—apparently by analogy with Americanism (3rd sense source)—as another term for "Anglomania"?

Even though I couldn't find any sourced evidence of the latter, I got to find "Anglicanism" used—by analogy with the most common meaning of "Americanism"—for "Anglicism,"or as a broad equivalent to "Briticism."

E.g.

"Boffin" is an Anglicanism for researcher. source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin

Yes, I know, we Colonialists mispronounce "scone', but the OED gives Anglican pronunciation. source

Though staying true to the 20th-century Anglican idiom -- some Britten and even more Vaughan Williams (though quite a bit of French... source

If you insist upon using the archaic word vampir, I would appreciate if you would use the Anglican pronunciation -- "vampire"... source

Kevin doesn't mind this, and in fact he usually introduces himself to others using this Anglican pronunciation... source

"It's not our problem, lieutenant," he said, choosing the more Anglican pronunciation. [Starsky & Hutch] source

And the thick Anglican accent when he did answer "that would be nice unless you wanted to finish off what you brother started." source

To any whom speak colloquial Anglican/American... source

At least Russell Crowe was attempting a Northern vernacular, and can be forgiven for at least trying to incorporate Anglican colloquialisms... [Movies Stack Exchange 2014] source

It is an effortless read, barring the few Anglican colloquialisms that creep into every now and then. [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone reviews] source

Dog farts. Ugh. We have a Staffordshire-Rat Terrier mix. These breeds are known as "fiests", which turns out to be an Old Anglican slang for fart. source

lummox: A clumsy, stupid person (1825 Anglican slang, root "lummock"... source

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lummox

Elian
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    Nobody uses Anglican to mean English. – tchrist Mar 28 '14 at 17:13
  • @tchrist So why is it pointed up as such in three reliable sources online? That's what I'm trying to figure out. – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 17:17
  • @tchrist Not three, but four authoritative online dictionaries corroborate that definition http://www.yourdictionary.com/anglican – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 17:26
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    Sounds like the three dictionaries are wrong then. Anglican is a Church, and not even an exclusively English one. Never heard of it used in any other sense. – Oldcat Mar 28 '14 at 18:03
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    What tchrist and Oldcat said. It's all well and good that three reliable sources online say something, but good luck finding any Americans who will admit to using Anglican to mean English. – Patrick87 Mar 28 '14 at 18:12
  • @Oldcat How can not three, but FOUR authoritative dictionaries possibly be wrong? Come on, gimme a break, Oldcat! :-) – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 18:14
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    Look, if you want to ask native speakers a question, you might as well accept their answers that it is as commonly seen as Hen's Teeth. Actually less rare, as I have seen Hen's Teeth before. Perhaps they are all copying each other. – Oldcat Mar 28 '14 at 18:17
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    OED says *anglomania is "probably after French anglomanie". Given that *Anglomaniac has been almost totally supplanted by Anglophile*, I would avoid it anyway. And Anglican = English has no significant currency except in the "organised religion" context. – FumbleFingers Mar 28 '14 at 18:18
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    I guess there are two schools of thought on what constitutes a language. One school of thought would hold that an academy rigorously defines and controls a language and the language is what the academy puts into a book. Another school of thought would hold that a language is defined by how people use it to communicate. Neither school is right or wrong, but they are different, and different places favor different schools. As a member of the latter school, I hesitate to call using Anglican for English wrong - if its meaning is clear in context, how can it be wrong? - but this is uncommon. – Patrick87 Mar 28 '14 at 18:18
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    @Patrick87: I don't begin to understand why, but this OP has a particular tendency to present (perforce, scant) evidence supporting non-standard usages, and try to get ELU users to agree such usages are "acceptable". – FumbleFingers Mar 28 '14 at 18:21
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    OED Anglican - In non-religious contexts: English. Now rare. – FumbleFingers Mar 28 '14 at 18:23
  • @FumbleFingers Gimme a break, Fumble! :-) None of these dictionaries point up adjectival "Anglican" for "English" as nonstandard. On top of that, this sense comes in the first place in Webster's New World Dictionary http://www.yourdictionary.com/anglican. The fact it's unfamiliar to you and to some AmE native speakers doesn't mean necessarily that this sense to "Anglican" is not (or was not once) in common use in some parts of the US. The United States is a vast country, you know. :-) – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 18:43
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    @Nourished: You consistently miss the point that users such as myself and tchrist are highly competent native speakers with wide knowledge of English. Questions about "prevalence" are obviously somewhat subjective, but the chances of there being any significant regional, historical, or contextual usage that either is or was "common" are vanishingly small, regardless of whether some dictionaries choose to include this sense. As implied by my OED citation, you are more likely to look favourably on the usage simply because it chimes with current French words. – FumbleFingers Mar 28 '14 at 18:59
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    @Patrick87 - There might be two views, but since there is no Academy in BrE or AmE, that school needs to not assume the top down model has force in English. – Oldcat Mar 28 '14 at 19:01
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    @Oldcat Oh, I completely agree; my point is that a bunch of dictionaries the English language do not (necessarily) make. – Patrick87 Mar 28 '14 at 19:22
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    I would suggest that East Anglican is a misprint (or misunderstanding) for East Anglian which is "of or pertaining to East Anglia" -- the big bulge on the east side of England. – Andrew Leach Mar 28 '14 at 19:47
  • @FumbleFingers I never denied the fact that you both actually were highly native speakers with wide knowledge of English. That said, I think you really should eat humble pie, Fumble, and accept that some native speakers of AmE might use (or once might have used) adjectival "Anglican" to refer to what id characteristic of England, as opposed to "their English", and that maybe it was standard AmE usage back in the old days, and might still be in current use in that sense in some parts of the US. – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 20:15
  • @AndrewLeach Thank you for pointing out, Andrew. :-) – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 20:21
  • @FumbleFingers Imagine just one second that some other highly respected, competent English native speaker with wide knowledge of English like you reacts tomorrow or in a month to the accepted answer to this OP and say "Wait, in my neck of the wood, "Anglican" is commonly used to refer to what is characteristic of England, I have oftentimes heard it used in that way". What would you say to that? – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 20:26
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    @NourishedGourmet Keep in mind that most dictionaries of English (especially the OED) are descriptive and not prescriptive; if someone, somewhere in a widely-read written work has used the word that way, the OED will record it. That doesn't mean that most modern readers, encountering that usage (Anglican meaning "English), wouldn't confuse it with Anglican for "member of the Anglican Church." – outis nihil Mar 28 '14 at 20:32
  • @NourishedGourmet - I would then say that the OED is wrong, and the usage isn't rare. – Oldcat Mar 28 '14 at 20:37
  • @outisnihil I can't seem to find any fault in that. Just time will tell [as far as the OP goes]. :-) – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 20:38
  • @Oldcat LOL Does the OED support either "reception room" or "reception"as synonymous to "vestibule", i.e. the small room, generally 10 ft. x 10 ft., usually found at the entrance of office buildings, Oldcat? ;-) – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 20:52
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    Whatever the multiple dictionaries say, they don't give an idea what people actually use. At least to an American, you will sound very, very strange if you use 'Anglican' instead of 'English'. – Mitch Mar 29 '14 at 02:40
  • Never heard these in the Midwest or California. We use English and Anglophile. And I agree with FF that the OP really needs to develop a better screening process for judging whether these questions are even plausible. It's easy to cherry pick long lists of bizarre usages on the internet. NG, try using Google Ngrams instead of Search to get a better feel for real usage frequencies. – Bradd Szonye Mar 29 '14 at 07:43
  • Also, please consolidate your edits! Excessive editing is disruptive and leads to posts becoming community wiki like this. – Bradd Szonye Mar 29 '14 at 08:56
  • @BraddSzonye Using Google Ngrams to compare "Anglican" with "English"? Come on, Brad, you gotta be kidding! You know pretty well it's not fair game ASA the result is quite predictable. My impression is that some people in AmE might use (or might have used) "Anglican" to refer to what is characteristic of England, as opposed to what is characteristic of the US, by analogy with Latin American native speakers of Spanish who typically refer to what pertains to, or is characteristic of Spain, its inhabitants, its culture, etc., as "Castilian", as opposed to their own Spanish. – Elian Mar 29 '14 at 12:39
  • @BraddSzonye And so, I wouldn't be surprised that some people in the US when asked what the language spoken in England might reply "Anglican" or "Anglican English", just like they would respond "Australian English", "South African English", "Canadian English", "Scottish (or Scotch) English" for respectively English as spoken in Australia, South Africa, Canada, and Scotland, as opposed to English as spoken in the US. – Elian Mar 29 '14 at 13:05
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    NG: The more I read your examples the more they sound like malapropisms or, more bluntly, mistakes. For each example there is a perfectly good much more common term, namely 'British'. So, you got us, some Americans use 'Anglican'. We're all telling you that when they do, everyone else cringes. So if you want to pass the 'spy test' don't use 'Anglican'. – Mitch Mar 29 '14 at 15:26
  • @Mitch If you posted that as an answer, I'd up vote it. – Bradd Szonye Mar 29 '14 at 18:07
  • @Mitch unless a word, idiom, pronunciation, or an accent is typical of an English dialect associated with the UK, it sounds to me more accurate to say it's an Anglicanism than a Briticism to some extent. Besides, most of my examples are related to the English as spoken in England: "boffin" was first recorded in a novel by Charles Dickens, "lummox" roots from the Midlands, "feist" from Old English, Harry Potter is English and most of the settings take place in England, etc. ;-) – Elian Mar 29 '14 at 18:29
  • @NourishedGourmet I have a pretty wide acquaintance of Americans in the northeast and midwest, and I have never heard an American speaker use Anglican to mean English rather than "member of CoE or Episcopalian Church." – outis nihil Mar 30 '14 at 20:03

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It's probably best to use English instead of Anglican (and Anglomania instead of Anglicanism), as Anglican is used to describe the Church of England, while "English" does not have this confusion.

Dictionary.com reflects this in its meaning for "Anglican":

adjective

1. of or pertaining to the Church of England.

2. related in origin to and in communion with the Church of England, as various Episcopal churches in other parts of the world.

3. English ( def 1 ) .

noun

4. a member of the Church of England or of a church in communion with it.

5. a person who upholds the system or teachings of the Church of England.

Ronan
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    I'm nowhere near unfamiliar with "Anglican" used nominally and adjectivally to a member of the Church of England, ASA it has the same meaning in France. However, "Anglican" used adjectivally as a synonym for "English" sounds unnatural to my ear, and so I wish someone could tell if it has or once had currency in AmE in such sense, and also could explain what the story is to it. – Elian Mar 28 '14 at 16:15
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    To my American (NE) ear, Anglican means a member of the Church of England, or of a more conservative Episcopalian church. That said, one might find examples of Anglican for "English" in American speech that I'm not aware of. – outis nihil Mar 28 '14 at 16:35
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OED does note that Anglican has been used to mean English:

2. gen. In non-religious contexts: English. Now rare.

1871 J. Ruskin Fors Clavigera I. iii. 19 The quite Anglican character of [King] Richard, to his death.
1959 Amer. Lit. 30 449 The sources of future enrichings of the Anglican speech are the same old fountains.

Sense 1 is the “Church of England; Episcopalian” sense which Ronan has explained.

The two citations I reproduce are the latest OED has. Both are literary, and the last is (a) American — the English would not have used Anglican to mean English by the 1950s — and (b) very literary. In fact, out of context, the entire sentence is obscure.

I conclude that Anglican has been used to mean English, but is no longer.

A better word for Anglicanism nowadays might be Anglicism.

1. a. A characteristically English word, phrase, or idiom, esp. one introduced into a sentence in another language.

OED has citations for that word and use from the 1640s to after 2000.

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Andrew Leach
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Whatever the multiple dictionaries say, they don't give an idea what people actually use.

At least to an American, you will sound very, very strange if you use 'Anglican' instead of 'English'. It may have once been a synonym for 'English' but isn't anymore.

There is some subtlety here, because the overwhelmingly preferred term for that Christian sect is called 'Episcopalian' in the US. The word 'Anglican' (for that church) is recognized but not the preferred use. But there is no subtlety to the fact that in whatever context 'Anglican' is presented, it always refers specifically to the religion, not to general English things.

Going through your examples one by one, to a native speaker they sound like malapropisms or, more bluntly, mistakes. For each example there is a perfectly good much more common term, namely 'British'.

So, yes, some Americans use 'Anglican' for English or British (see this question for further distinction between those two). We're all telling you that when they do, everyone else cringes. So if you want to pass the 'spy test' don't use 'Anglican'

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Mitch
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  • You might want to consider this link, Mitch http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/16th-november-1912/30/definitions – Elian Mar 29 '14 at 13:26
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    NG: I think that letter proves my point more than yours. That letter was published in 1912 in a Catholic (religious) journal. So the letter was using 'Anglican' to mean English in the religious sense, namely the Curch of England, not generally English. – Mitch Mar 29 '14 at 13:58
  • To my perspective, that letter proves on the contrary that the term "Anglican" to refer to a thing characteristic of England as opposed to the rest of the English speaking world was seemingly not, back in the old days, as uncommon as one might think, and still might be in currency in some parts of the US. Look, it's relatively in common use on my side of the pond to refer to what pertains to, or is characteristic of Germany as "Teutonic" e.g. Teutonic art, or what roots from Portugal as "Lusitanian". Sure enough such adjectival terms compared with respectively "German" and "Portuguese". – Elian Mar 29 '14 at 14:51
  • That quote, sourced from Movies StackExchange, is from a 28 year old American: "At least Russell Crowe was attempting a Northern vernacular, and can be forgiven for at least trying to incorporate Anglican colloquialisms' http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/17615/where-is-jerome-supposed-to-be-from – Elian Mar 29 '14 at 15:01
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No one seems to have mentioned the prefix 'Anglo'.

'Anglo' is widely used. Some people are 'Anglo-Jewish', 'Anglo-Italian', Anglo-Indian' etc. We talk of an 'Anglo-Japanese venture', and of 'Anglo-dominated business practices'. The English speaking world is sometimes referred to as 'The Anglosphere'.

Whilst 'Anglican' is nowadays mostly confined to religion, 'Anglo' is alive and well as a prefix meaning 'English'.

This fact is confirmed by the OED.

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WS2
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  • The thing is the prefix "Anglo" is fairly common and easily perceivable by most people to not be confused with what is characteristic of the Amglican Church. This apparently is not the case for "Anglican". In one or two of my last examples, the sense to "Anglican" is actually borderline equivocal whether it is the religious or nonreligious meaning that is conveyed. :-) – Elian Mar 29 '14 at 00:23
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    @NourishedGourmet Do you similarly rule out, as being irrelevant to this discussion, words like 'Anglicise', Anglicism etc. which clearly are used by many Americans to refer to what is English? I am rather losing track of the motion under debate here. Is it entirely about the word 'Anglican' , used in a non-religious context? May I also ask if there is any reason why it is so important to you to establish that there might be some little corner of America where 'Anglican'is still used to mean 'English'? – WS2 Mar 29 '14 at 05:29