Brother Jonathan
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The name “Jonathan” was taken from a caricature called Brother Jonathan, a precursor of Uncle Sam, an unmannered, forthright, patriotic New Englander.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2023
National symbols aren’t something we can formally retire; they’re deep in the culture, and can only fade away, like Brother Jonathan or Columbia, as people’s values change.
From Slate • Jul. 4, 2022
But there was another figure resembling Uncle Sam called Brother Jonathan who emerged earlier.
From Salon • Dec. 11, 2021
He replaced Brother Jonathan, a New Englander, as an American icon in the early 19th century after an article circulated in the May 12, 1830, New York Gazette.
From New York Times • Jul. 3, 2015
Volume Fourteen of St. Nicholas is one of those good gifts that Brother Jonathan sends us.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, November 5, 1887 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.