# "American":  does it describe any foreign nouns?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-does-it-describe-any-foreign-nouns/128539>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 15, 2002, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-does-it-describe-any-foreign-nouns/128539 "2002-09-15T13:44:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Art\_Metzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Art\_Metzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Metzer)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-does-it-describe-any-foreign-nouns/128539/1 "2002-09-15T13:44:21Z")

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In American English, some nouns’ ascriptive adjectives are non-U.S. nationalities, like:[ul]  
[li]French manicure[/li][li]African violet[/li][li]Canadian bacon[/li][li]Russian roulette[/li][li]German measles[/li][/ul]I was wondering, do other languages similarly describe some specific things with/as “American”? If so, which languages, and how does the adjective “American” narrow the meaning of the noun it’s describing?

Art