What do you think of the fact that "America" is the way the U.S.A. is commonly referred to as? I don't see a problem with it... I mean how many countries in the Americas have the word "America" in the title? I thought this was interesting: Spoiler Speakers of English generally refer to the landmasses of North America and South America as the Americas, the Western Hemisphere, or the New World. The adjective American may be used to indicate something pertains to the Americas, but this term is primarily used in English to indicate something pertains to the United States. Some non-ambiguous alternatives exist, such as the adjective Pan-American, or New Worlder as a demonym for a resident of the Americas. Use of America in the hemispherical sense is sometimes retained, or can occur when translated from other languages. For example, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) in Paris maintains a single continental association for "America", represented by one of the five Olympic rings. The English-language use of "American" as the demonym for citizens of the United States has caused offense to some from Latin America who may identify themselves with the term "American" and feel that using the term solely for the United States misappropriates it. To avoid this usage, they prefer constructed terms in their languages derived from "United States" or even "North America".In Canada, its southern neighbor is often referred to as "the United States", "the U.S.A.", or (informally) "the States," while citizens are generally referred to as Americans. Most Canadians resent being referred to as Americans, but some are said to have protested the use of American as a national demonym.
People not from the United States generally refer to themselves as whichever country is theirs, such as Mexican, Canadian, Brazilian, etc. Does it count as monopolizing "America" just because ours is the only country with that in the name?
I don't see a problem with it either. It has been called America for a long time, I don't want to fact check right now, but I think it's been referred to as America since before it officially declared itself an independent country. Besides, The United States of America sounds a bit formal for casual conversation, and saying the US is fine, but very generic sounding. There was a push by some in the early years after the revolution to call ot Columbia, after Christopher Colombus, this obviously didn't catch on enough to work. America is supposed to be derived from the name of an Italian cartographer, Amerigo, who lived during the 1500s.
We're American. That demonym ship has sailed. When I go to Mexico (or any other country, for that matter), I'm an "American." My only complaint is that when I say "an American," it sounds like "un-American." Maybe it's just me and I slur my words :lol:.
I've actually heard the term "U.S.ians" used a couple of times before. I honestly have no idea how to spell that right and it still sounds kind of funny nonetheless.
In Spanish we call people from the USA "estadounidenses" which would be equivalent to United Statians. We also call América the continent from Canada to Chile. But since you speak English, and as far as I know in English our América is called The Americas, there's no problem for me that you call yourselves American. But when you speak Spanish have in mind that your country is "Estados Unidos" and you're "estadounidenses", because we all are "americanos".
America is a continent, not a country. But are we really surprised that Americans would claim the name of a whole continent just for themselves? Lol we still love you guys (kind of).
'USA' is a pretty crap country name, but so are other country names like UAE and Central African Republic. Of course, the worst by far is the UK. Such a poor description. There are loads of Kingdoms that are united~
I personally don't see something wrong with it, but that's because I was raised here. I wouldn't say it's wrong per se. I do know someone from Argentina and, whenever I refer to myself as American of from America, he always says "I'm an American too." So I guess it depends somewhat on where you are from (obviously). Also, many other languages refer to people from the USA as Americans and such.
