米国

Etymology 1
Appears to be a coinage in Japanese of derived elements, as a compound of.

First cited in Japanese in the 1603 edition of the. The original meaning was literally "rice country", in reference to any country rich in rice.

By 1819, the sense expanded to include countries that were major rice exporters.

The "America" sense is cited first in 1869.
 * This is often explained as using the character as a shortening of the phonetic kanji spelling,   purportedly as used in the 1854.
 * However, the Japanese text of the treaty does not actually include this spelling, rendering this instead as either or.
 * Considering that was a common form of the country name from the time of the 1854 treaty up through the early 1900s, this seems the more likely source of the  character.

Noun

 * 1)   a country that is an exporter of rice
 * 2)   a country that is rich in rice

Etymology 2
Compound of.

First cited in Japanese in the 1603 edition of the. The original meaning was literally "rice country", in reference to any country rich in rice.

By 1819, the sense expanded to include countries that were major rice exporters.

This reading appears to be obsolete in modern Japanese.

Noun

 * 1)   a country that is rich in rice
 * 2)   a country that is an exporter of rice