What is "uncle sam"

Uncle \Un"cle\, n. [OE. uncle, OF. oncle, uncle, F. oncle, fr. L. avunculus a maternal uncle, dim. of avus a grandfather; akin to Lith. avynas uncle, Goth. aw? grandmother, Icel.

1. The brother of one's father or mother; also applied to an aunt's husband; -- the correlative of aunt in sex, and of nephew and niece in relationship.

2. A pawnbroker. [Slang]
   --Thackeray.

3. An eldery man; -- used chiefly as a kindly or familiar appellation, esp. (Southern U. S.) for a worthy old negro; as, ``Uncle Remus.'' [Colloq.]

   Plain old uncle as he [Socrates] was, with his great ears, -- an immense talker.
   --Emerson.

   My uncle, a pawnbroker. [Slang]

   Uncle Sam, a humorous appellation given to the United States Government. See Uncle Sam, in Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.

symbol of the United States of America, 1813, coined during the war with Britain as a contrast to John Bull, and no doubt suggested by the initials U.S. in abbreviations. "[L]ater statements connecting it with different government officials of the name of Samuel appear to be unfounded" [OED]. The common figure of Uncle Sam began to appear in political cartoons c.1850. Only gradually superseded earlier Brother Jonathan (1776), largely through the popularization of the figure by cartoonist Thomas Nast. British in World War I sometimes called U.S. soldiers Sammies.

Uncle Sam (born Sam Turner, Detroit, Michigan, United States) is an American R&B singer. He is best known for being signed to Boyz II Men's Stonecreek Records imprint (distributed by Epic Records) in the late 1990s.

His only Top 40 hit was the Nathan Morris-penned " I Don't Ever Want to See You Again" released October 14, 1997, which reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and #2 on the U.S. R&B chart in 1997. The same track reached #30 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1998. The record sold over one million copies, gaining gold disc status.

Uncle Sam also sang a cover of " When I See You Smile", originally recorded by Bad English, for the television program Touched by an Angel.

After failing to have another hit, Uncle Sam retired from the recording business and became a pastor at an Atlanta-area church.

Uncle Sam is a fictional character, a DC Comics superhero based on the national personification of the United States, Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam first appeared in National Comics #1 (July, 1940) and was created by Will Eisner.

Uncle Sam is an iconic figure and a national personification of the United States of America.

Uncle Sam may also refer to:

• Uncle Sam (comics), Quality Comics/DC Comics character
• Uncle Sam (Vertigo), two-part comic book series by Steve Darnall and Alex Ross
• Uncle Sam (diamond)
• Uncle Sam (film), a 1997 film
• Uncle Sam (singer)
• Uncle Sam (song) by Madness
• Uncle Sam Cereal
• Uncle Sam (sidewheeler 1852), a side-wheel paddle steamer tug, first steamboat to ascend the Colorado River

Uncle Sam is the nickname for the largest diamond ever discovered in the United States. It was found in 1924 in Murfreesboro, Arkansas at the Prairie Creek pipe mine, which later became known as the Crater of Diamonds State Park. The diamond was named "Uncle Sam" after the nickname of its finder, Wesley Oley Basham, a worker at the Arkansas Diamond Corporation.

The rough diamond as originally discovered weighed 40.23 carats (8.046 g). It was faceted twice by Schenck & Van Haelen of New York, a company which specialized in Arkansas diamonds, handling over 14,000. The company described those diamonds as being so hard that they could only be cut using powder of other Arkansas diamonds. The final result was a 12.42-carat (2.484 g) emerald-cut gem. It was characterized as M on the diamond color scale; this nominally corresponds to a faint yellow color, but the visual impression of Uncle Sam has been variously described as white or slight pink. Judging from the color, the diamond is most likely of pure IIa diamond type meaning the amount of impurities is below a few parts per million. The clarity of the stone was assessed as VVS1, which stands for Very Very Slightly Included and means the stone has minute non-diamond inclusions that are difficult for a skilled grader to see under 10x magnification.

The diamond was owned by the Peikin Jewelers of Fifth Avenue, New York. It was lent by Peikin to the American Museum of Natural History for temporary display and storage. In 1971 it was acquired by a Boston dealer, Sidney de Young, and sold for $150,000 to an anonymous private collector.

The discovery of Uncle Sam arguably rescued the Arkansas Diamond Corporation, which had a debt over US$276,470 by that time and was going to be shut down in the winter of 1924. The number of diamonds found on the surface was decreasing, and the cost of digging operations was estimated as higher than the expected diamond recovery. Not that the value of the diamond was sufficient to cover the debts, but the discovery lifted the spirits enough to keep the surface operations. Currently, the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas is the only public diamond mine in the world. Over 75,000 diamonds have been found here since the opening of the park in 1906. The place where Uncle Sam was discovered is marked, and many additional diamonds have been found there.

Uncle Sam is the self-titled 1997 debut album from Uncle Sam. It includes the hit single "I Don't Ever Want To See You Again" and the cover "Tender Love". On the worldwide release, a few bonus tracks were included.

Uncle Sam is a two-part prestige format comic book mini-series published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint in 1997. It was written by Steve Darnall with art by Alex Ross.

"Uncle Sam" is a song by British ska/ pop band Madness from their 1985 album Mad Not Mad. It was predominantly written by their saxophonist Lee Thompson, but partially credited to their guitarist Chris Foreman.

Uncle Sam (initials U.S.) is a common national personification of the American government or the United States in general that, according to legend, came into use during the War of 1812 and was supposedly named for Samuel Wilson but whose actual origin may be obscure. Uncle Sam represents a manifestation of patriotic emotion.

The first use of Uncle Sam in formal literature, as distinct from newspapers, was in the 1816 allegorical book " The Adventures of Uncle Sam in Search After His Lost Honor" by Frederick Augustus Fidfaddy, Esq. An Uncle Sam is mentioned as early as 1775, in the original " Yankee Doodle" lyrics of the American Revolutionary War. It is not clear whether this reference is to Uncle Sam as a metaphor for the United States, or to an actual person named Sam. The lyrics as a whole celebrate the military efforts of the young nation, besieging the British at Boston. The 13th stanza is:

Old Uncle Sam come there to change Some pancakes and some onions, For 'lasses cakes, to carry home To give his wife and young ones.

Uncle Sam is a 1996 horror comedy film directed by William Lustig, and written by Larry Cohen.

Uncle Sam, was a side-wheel paddle-steamer, first steamboat on the Colorado River, in 1852.

In November 1852, the Uncle Sam, a 65-foot long side-wheel paddle steamer was brought by the schooner Capacity from San Francisco to the Colorado River Delta by the next contractor to supply Fort Yuma, Captain James Turnbull. It had been built in June 1852 in San Francisco by Domingo Marcucci and disassembled for shipment. It was assembled and launched in the estuary, 30 miles above the mouth of the Colorado River. Equipped with only a 20-horsepower engine, the Uncle Sam could only carry 35 tons of supplies, taking 15 days to make the first 120-mile trip.

Uncle Sam made many trips up and down the river for four months to finish carrying all the supplies for the fort, improving its time up river to 12 days. Negligence caused it to sink at its dock below Fort Yuma, and was then washed away and lost before it could be raised, in the spring flood of 1853. Turnbull who meanwhile had returned to the Delta from San Francisco with another cargo and a more powerful engine for the Uncle Sam. He returned to San Francisco, for a new hull, while the army sent wagons to recover the cargo from the delta again. However, Turnbull in financial difficulty, disappeared from the city leaving creditors unpaid. Nevertheless, Turnbull had shown the worth of steamboats to solve Fort Yuma's supply problem.