English
Uncle Sam
From uncle + Sam (diminutive of the male name Samuel), probably based on the initialism U.S.
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os ‘grandfather’
…
Latin avunculus ‘maternal uncle’
Vulgar Latin *aunclum
Anglo-Norman uncle
Middle English uncle
English uncle
Proto-Indo-European *sem- ‘one; together’
…
Proto-Germanic *samnōną ‘to gather’
Proto-West Germanic *samnōn ‘to gather’
Old English samnian ‘to collect, gather’
Middle English sammen
English Sam
The story
From uncle + Sam (diminutive of the male name Samuel), probably based on the initialism U.S. of the United States. While folk etymology suggests that the term was named after Samuel Wilson (1766–1854), a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied the United States Army with canned meat during the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom, the Oxford English Dictionary notes there is no evidence that this is the case.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted.
Today it means
name A personification of the United States federal government or (rare) citizens.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Uncle Sam