masc. proper name, biblical son of Saul, from Hebrew Yonathan, short for Yehonathan, literally "the Lord has given" (compare Nathan). As a pre-Uncle Sam emblem of the United States, sometimes personified as Brother Jonathan, it dates from 1816, said to have been applied by Washington to Gov. Jonathan Trumbull Sr. of Connecticut (1710-1785), to whom he sometimes turned for advice (see 2 Sam. i:26); hence "a New Englander," and eventually "an American." As a variety of red apple it dates from 1831, so called because it was introduced in the U.S.