coined 1931 by James Truslow Adams (1878-1949), U.S. writer and popular historian (unrelated to the Massachusetts Adamses), in "Epic of America."

[The American Dream is] that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. [Adams]

Others have used the term as they will.

the sort of improbable fantasy one has while smoking opium, 1870, from pipe (n.1) in the smoking sense + dream (n.). Old English pipdream meant "piping," from dream in the sense of "music."

"small Central American state with an economy dependent on banana production," 1901, American English.

"venomous lizard of the American southwest" (Heloderma suspectum), 1877, American English, from Gila River, which runs through its habitat in Arizona. The river name probably is from an Indian language, but it is unknown now which one, or what the word meant in it.

also drug-store, 1810, American English, "pharmacy, store that sells medications and related products," from drug (n.) + store (n.). Drug-store cowboy is 1925, American English slang, originally someone who dressed like a Westerner but obviously wasn't.

type of hawk that is believed to prey on domestic fowl, 1802, American English. Figuratively, from the secondary senses of both words, "public person who advocates war but declined significant opportunity to serve in uniform during wartime," at least 1988, American English. From chicken (n.) + hawk (n.).

"vanish, abscond," 1920s, American English, probably from mid-19c. notion of disappearing south to Mexico or Texas to escape pursuit or responsibility, reinforced by Native American belief (attested in colonial writing mid-18c.) that the soul journeys south after death.

1902, American English, originally in a Cuban context, from Basque, from jai "celebration" + alai "merry."

"imaginary average American citizen," 1934; the Q perhaps suggested by John Quincy Adams.

1862; see Latin (adj.). The notion is the nations whose languages descend from Latin. Related: Latin American (adj.), 1871.