Indeed, U.S.A. is not America!
America is the name of a whole continent. United States of America means that the United States belongs to America and NOT that America belongs to the United States. So, next time you want to refer to The United States of America, you can do it as U.S. or the States or whatever you want but not as only America. Gotcha?
How should I use the term America then?
Here we will show you some wrong and correct uses of the term America:
This is how we do it in America.
This is how we do it in the States.
- America is my country and I love it.
- The United States is my country and I love it.
- America lost the Vietnam war.
- U.S.A. lost the Vietnam war.
- Here in America we love Mc Donald's.
- Here in the U.S. we love Mc Donald's.
Please, note that this page in not about demonyms (gentilics) but about the way to call a country.
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Comments (1251)
Isn't it stupid to mention the continent's name next to your country name? especially when there is no other country named "United States". They tried to copy the United Kingdom, but they did it wrong.
To make it worst, they educated their citizen wrongly too. Well, most only learned from TV.
well there's South Africa! Which is not all Africans, they rightly called themselves SouthAfricans
Republic of South Africa isn't the entire southern region of Africa.
And I am not saying that USA has the right to the word or anything like that. I am just correcting your mistake. All I am saying is that what you said is a fallacy is actually not a fallacy. I have simply proved that you are wrong. It seems like you really don’t want to accept that you are obviously wrong. That is why you mention all these other things and downvote, but you don’t address the clear fact that I have presented. Can you make solid and factual arguments?
Which countries have America in their current official name? You claim to like facts. The evidence of your posts doesn’t show that you really like facts.
An example is South Africa. A country in the continent of Africa who uses the name of the continent however, they did not steal the name for themselves and rightly they call themselves South Africans. If South Africans would drop the South just because is not like a good name to have, they would then would want to be called Africans as the U.S. does with the continent's name "America". But that is not fair to all of the rest of the African countries. So it is with America. America is for all of the people in all the countries in the continent of America. So the people in the U.S. should rightly called United Statians.
It seems like you think you are answering my question. Or that you are proving me wrong. You aren’t doing either. I am not wrong. You are writing about South Africa and acting like that proves that other countries have America in their official names. No other country does. Why do you act like you are proving me wrong when you aren’t proving me wrong?
Isabel, not trying to prove you wrong. This is an example on what I have been saying that the name "America" that the U.S. uses is the continent's name and so it should be used by anyone in the continent and not just by those in the U.S. Showing us that the U.S. might or is the only country which uses the name of the continent is not proof that is correct as I had shown you in the example of South Africa. When U.S. uses the name of the continent it is actually including all of those in the continent for example, it is the United States of America but it is not America.
Everyone who brings up that issue with the U.S. having the name of the continent in its official name is bringing a weak point. Due to the fact that the name was taken (TAKEN) from the continent in which the U.S. is located.
Everyone knows America originated with the 1507 map and not USA. This doesn’t change the fact that USA is the only country with America in its name. If you think different you are wrong.
are you suggesting the U.S. stole the continent's name?
So it’s a fallacy that other countries besides USA have America in their official name. It’s strange how you avoid this fact and act like what I posted was wrong. You really like posting fallacies. Fallacies make the weakest arguments.
Is a fact that the United States was founded in the continent of America. Anything or anyone who takes America as his/her its name is only copying the name of the continent. The U.S. took the name of the continent and you can't hide that. Or do you have another historical fact that you can share with us in how the U.S. came up with the name "America"?
We are both United Statians and Americans.
As a countryperson people from the USA are Estadounidenses or United Statians, as a person from the continent, they are Americans as every other continental citizen
I think it is a fact that USA is the only country to have the word America in the official name of the country. I looked at lists of official country names from the United Nations. In both English and Spanish USA is the only country to use the word America. Like you say it is in some official seals and flags of countries in Central America. But it isn’t in their official names. Even if other countries had America in their name USA would still be called America by many people so I don’t understand why it matters if America is in the name of other countries.
The UN list in French also shows USA to be the one country with Amérique in the official name.
The offical name is United States of America (the), however the official short name used by the UN, all of the international organizations and even the own country is United States (the), abreviated as US, U.S., USA, U.S.A.
America is not the official short name of the country. Even the consitution starts with: "We the poeple of the United States..." ommitting the "America" part.
The United States included the name of the continent "America" due to the country being in America to draw a line between America and Europe. The issue is that people use it thinking is the name of the country, when it is not. It is the name of the continent in which the United States was born from! So as much as the citizens of the U.S. are Americans due to the continent in which the country is, citizens in all the countries in America are also Americans. By the U.S. using the name of the continent does not mean it is only theirs.
FACTS!!
We will soon celebrate the discovery of America (12th of October)
Exactly, the discovery of the new world and named America, and not of the United States
@Mrs. Anonymous unfortunately wikipedia is obnoxious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_America_(United_States)
>:|
Yes I saw that. Everyone can add info to Wiki and this is one of the examples. Middle America is a colloquial language and is not use often. It is not standard. I see it as a consequential action of those who were taught that the USA is America but has no way to explain this erroneous way of thought. Little by little as time passes those who think America is the name given to the USA introduce or bring mistakes like this example posted on wiki as if Middle America is in the middle of the USA. Especially when we know throughout history that the original and only middle of America is Central America. Ultimately society, especially those who control it, have been introducing new meanings to old words or changing the meaning just because it fits their cause. But, history is clear, America is the name of the continent.
Meso America is not in the middle of the United States but in the middle of America the continent
America Central means that portion of America that is located in its center! Not in the USA!