Maybe this is a regional thing but I’ve always called it the US
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I refer to it as “the US”, but refer to myself as an “American.”
I’m a US citizen and lived there most of my life but refuse to call myself American. I’d rather call myself after my home state or country of birth, but saying you’re from the US is an embarrassment. That country never did anything for me anyways, I spent my life fighting against it
I no longer live in the US
Sir this is Wendy’s
Sir (or madam), they are not a “sir.”
Sir this is Wendy’s
Sir, pass me that spliff, please?
To add to the confusion. The Americas (or America) comprise the landmasses of North and South America in the Western Hemisphere
People living in North and South America (or the Americas) can also be called American or Americans if the were referring to the landmass.
Strangely the United States IMO is the only country that seems to indicate the landmass its situated on when using the full name, the United States of America. Not to mention the indication of a union of individual states as well.
Several single-word English demonym alternatives have been suggested over time, for example Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, and United Stater.
Saying someone is a United Statesian or Statesian is probably the closest to how other countries like Canada (Canadian) or Mexico (Mexican) refer to themselves. If we forget that pretty much all other countries are a unity of states, counties, and or provinces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States
Several single-word English alternatives have been suggested
Some of these make sense, but several of them would only refer to a specific area in the U.S. (e.g. Washingtonian) or are really out of left field (e.g. Fredonian).
I’m assuming Washingtonian would be refering to the man, not the state that refers to the man. I mean, it’s a silly name, but not for the reason you state.
Residents of Washington DC are also referred to as Washingtonians
That issue would be on them, if it is an issue. Not sure it matters for the argument at hand.
You do know it is actually named “the United Mexican States”, right? The name of the US is simply bad from the beginning and sometimes you can’t fix bad. Unless they take over all of the Americas, I guess. Then it’s a good name. Bad move, but good name.
That’s wild what a plot twist
I do, most countries are a unitity of states, counties, or provinces.
It would be so confusing if Mexico never settled on a name for its united states and called themselves the United States of America
"Saying someone is a United Statesian or Statesian is probably the closest to how other countries like Canada (Canadian) or Mexico (Mexican) refer to themselves. If we forget that pretty much all other countries are a unity of states, counties, and or provinces. "
I was refering to this part of your post. United Statesian or Statesian doesn’t make sense to correlate to Mexicans. They are both united states. As for Canada, I think they might be a confederacy and thus united states as well, but I also believe their semi-official name is actually Canada.
As for most countries being united of sorts, I’m willing to accept that as an axiom, but I’m doubtful it is part of their cultural identity in the majority of cases. Maybe on a per capita basis.
Vespucciland -> Vespuccian.
At this point, I think we should just call US people Indian.
Thats’s cuz English Language sucks.
In Chinese Language for example: A 美國人 (American (Country)) and a 美洲人 (American (Continent)). But in English both are “American”.
Also so many syllabels converying so few info.
Literally 4 syllabels for “American”
But “美國人” or “美洲人” are both 3 syllabels and already contains [America-Country Person] or [America-Continent Person]
Sorry, no offense to English speakers, but as a polyglot, I just had to comment this xD
All languages convey information at roughly similar rates. Those with less information per syllable tend to say more syllables per minute. It’s a fascinating area of linguistics!
All natural languages have ambiguities where the meaning of a word depends on context due to changes over time.
“This is America! I’ll call it whatever I want!”
I use America a lot
In my country you can know someone’s politics just by knowing if they call people from the USA americanos or estadounidenses.
estadounidenses
people actually use this in conversation?
When they aren’t imperialist bootlickers.
ps: In Portuguese, United States is Estados Unidos - hence estadounidense.
Oh I understand the word, it just seems like a lot of syllables.
I use “the U.S.” or “States”.
There’s more than one America.
But not more States, united or not…?
I’ve been lucky enough to travel a fair amount. If I say, “I’m from the States.”, people knew that meant the USA.
They will. They will also know if you say you are from America. My point was that one is no better than the other, from an accuracy point of view. Both have multiple meanings.
Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians… All from America.
Agreed. And correct. We are not disagreeing. :)
Definitely not, just adding information for readers.
Yet, I’ve never encountered anyone else from around the globe that uses the term “the States” to indicate whichever country they’re from.
And that is my point! Or half of it, I should say. I’ve made too many comments in this thread to keep track of myself. Contextually it works, but that doesn’t make it more suitable than American as that works equally well. No one that isn’t trying to be obtuse will think you mean Mexican when you say American, even though it is technically as correct.
Well there are Estados Unitidos, but those are in Mexico
It was a retorical question. :)
That’s just not true.
I use them interchangeably. 🤷
The dumber kids I went to middle school with called it America
Granted, that was in the 90s
When I hear the word “America”, I always have the mental image of someone that speaks English in a non-American (or even non-Anglosphere) accent, and that this person either really likes America or really hates The US, no in between. Like sometimes I picture a person saying “America” in a heavy russian accent I think it just sounds so funny. I think I watched too many movies and I just like the russian accent… it sounds very intimidating and that’s why it had that sort of “cool factor”.
Also, I kinda mix both depending on how my brain is thinking. Sometimes I think my thoughts in Chinese and the “美國” automatically converts into English as “America”, cuz nobody says “合眾國” (United States) in Chinese (at least not in the variants/“dialects” that I know of), cuz it feels like a generic term like “The Republic”, doesn’t make a lot of sense unless referring specifically to domestic politics.
As a Naturalized American Citizen, I sometimes feel like the term “American Citizen” feels like a wrong term, and the term “US Citizen” feels more “correct” to say.
I think that in Chinese, sometimes I hear “民國” (shortened from the full term 中華民國) to refer to ROC and I think “共和國” (shortened from the full term 中華人民共和國) can similarly be used similar to refer to PRC, when used in the context of Chinese history.
Because I’ve been told by people of the other nations of these two continents that it bugs them and I had a nice and easy alternative
I hear almost exclusively people referring to the country as “America”. This was actually a very conscious shift at the turn of the 20th century for people in public life to refer to the country as “America” instead of “the US” or “the United States” as we … acquired overseas territories and weren’t a country only of United States anymore
Could be regional, but I hear it quite often.
There are some instances where it feels more correct to say US, but for everyday use I probably say America more.
I’ve noticed this too but it seems like a left vs right thing. But never “the USA”
Definitely a regional thing.
Most notably, the region of the United States in the Americas.
US Americans seem to refer to themselves as “Americans” a lot on social media. Or they refer to themselves as “the world” like in “this icecream is the best in the world” (without having visited any other country for a significant time to be able to compare). In Europe, US Americans are referred to by different names: the popular „yanks“, the German “Amis” (die spinnen doch, die Amis), depends on the country. The prevalence of new names is increasing rapidly, e.g. Trumpists, US twerks, dropkicks.
US Americans seem to refer to themselves as “Americans” a lot on social media.
There isn’t really a better demonym, and certainly none in common usage… USians? US-American (as you mentioned)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States
The “World Series” of baseball is the example I would use. All but one team is based in the US.
'murca (not sure if anyone actually calls it that).
