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 (1400)
Anyway, my point was, it’s comical that the USA was a Protestant, Northern European majority country that despised Catholicism, discriminated against Southern Europeans, but struts around using a Latin, Southern European, Catholic word for a name. They segregated US citizens of Mexican ancestry in many states. Regarded Southern Europeans as racially inferior and banned them from immigrating to the USA for the longest time. This whole hemisphere has been mostly just a racially segregated empire run by authoritarian puppets controlled by their white Protestant masters in Washington.
No, not anyway. Believing your BS is the wrong way. Research and think. Read a book.
Read a United Statian book!!
I'm going to be honest with something ... we South Americans often refer to our region (or continent in English) just as America, and that is not exact because its name is Sudamérica, that is, we do the same thing that the Americans*. And that's okay because it's just an informal expression to call ourselves, and theirs (sometimes calling themselves America).
* My suggestion is to change it to Usamerican and then in Spanish it would be usamericano
Thanks for mentioning this. I have pointed this out a number of times over the years. In Spanish, ‘America’ is also sometimes used to refer to Latin America and Spanish America. Many people who post here are either ignorant of these facts, or they want to pretend that these facts don’t exist. These facts undermine their “arguments” because they show that ‘America’ doesn’t have just one meaning. The truth doesn’t support their false narrative, so they pretend and lie.
Well, actually, it’s ‘América’ in Spanish. See, I care about accuracy, unlike a lot of the clowns who post here.
David you have not explained nor giving us the facts on how is it that the United States got to be called "America"? From where did the United States get the name "America"? Why did the USA change to first accept a continent called America and then grab its name and then started teaching two separate continents in America? See your arguments have a starting point which you seem to avoid. My arguments are solid and are backed up by the facts of history of a one continent named America. Whereas your argument has an obscurity that not even you can explain. The two meanings is a bogus fact/explanation of the reason why the U.S. uses the name of the continent. Anything named America, is actually using the name and meaning of the continent's name. You can't negate that fact!
Give us the facts on how this became to be?
America in English started like an idiom where the word has been used by people as a figurative language which means it was not meant to be literally as the country's name but they use it erroneously and it has spread without being challenged. People picked it up and kept it going thinking is naming the USA. But here we are telling people that the name is the continent's and that the U.S. used it as a continent, but as I said,the name was later erroneously spread throughout the world in something similar to an idiom. Long ago, I gave the example of the Kleenex. Most people ask for a Kleenex when they really should say "tissue paper" or Band-aid where there should say "a bandage". So, when people say America when referring to the USA,it means the continents name.
two examples of this are, when a soccer team wins the South American championship we call it "the champion of America!"; the other is the opening greeting of a famous Argentine television host, he says "¡buenas noches América!" (good night America!), and he does it for a tv show that is broadcast only for Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay.
“...an ITALIAN, SOUTHERN EUROPEAN, CATHOLIC word...”
Vespucci was these things, but the name ‘America’ certainly isn’t. Please research and think before posting. Thanks.
The word America is Latin, is it not? And where did Latin originate?
Nice try.
America, the LATINIZED version of Amerigo. What’s a nice try?
Latin and Italian aren’t the same thing. You incorrectly wrote Italian, and now you are making up weak excuses instead of admitting that you were wrong. Nice try.
The United Statian way. Warmongering history continues. Stop it please!
https://youtu.be/6PaiIziqb40
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/is41QQ5vRKXBx4ZjH8We8w
Ah! It already existed, I had forgotten, "Pan-American", and it would be the English equivalent of "americano" of Spanish. That's why there shouldn't be a Spanish version of this word, but to create more confusion there is! "panamericano".
When Washington wants to stop building walls, start offering annexation treaties again, and get back to the business of advancing civilization and the prosperity of every country it shares borders with, then maybe we’ll call them America.
Until then, the USA is just a midget version of Rome. A prejudiced and insecure wannabe that failed to develop into anything great because it refused to do the two things that helped Rome and perhaps every other great empire in history expand across the known world; tolerate other religions and include people of other races.
The USA couldn’t do either. That’s why Manifest Destiny is a dead dream. Now the USA just shuts its door to the rest of the world and narcissistically admires itself all day in front of the mirror that is its own homegrown mass media.
Even then... that would not give US the right to be called like that, because it is only a piece in the northern part or America.
They couldn’t annexate Cuba in 1899 because one, they were already practicing racial segregation against Mexicans at home. Two, it would’ve added a huge brown and black population to the country, giving non-whites a bigger part of the vote. Couldn’t have that right?
So now we got a white majority country in a non-white majority hemisphere using the name of both continents, an ITALIAN, SOUTHERN EUROPEAN, CATHOLIC word, as the name of its nationality. How did this happen?
And I’d also like to add that the way Washington treated Cuba in the years following the Spanish US War, from 1899 right up until today was disgusting.
Sorry but for Latin America there is only ONE continent not two! The USA has divided it into two so that the name America is up for grabs!
I’ll say it again. America is a continent, bounded by oceans and shorelines, not imaginary lines inside a continent where Washington unfairly tariffs the free flow of goods.
"Brown stood toe to toe for the first few rounds, evidently figuring that he could... history for the Australian topped up to George, -hook hands with our United Statian and biffed, banged and roughed heads, shoulders and elbows for 20 long rounds to a draw."
- New Castle News, Pennsylvania, US, December 22th, 1919
WOW! I need to sit so I don’t keel over.
And the example is only 101 years old. WOW!!!
Well researched sister! Merci I thought that demonym was rare but it is actually normal
It’s extremely rare in English.
It probably became rare when the USA finally took the steps into dividing the continent into two and grabbing its name "America".
It’s always been EXTREMELY rare. Facts are facts.
The US was often called ‘America’ long before the Americas were considered two continents. Will you ever get the facts straight?
This is for English speakers who visit the web (a little game), if you had to invent a demonym for an inhabitant of The Americas, what would it be like? (obviously different from the word "American")
North American and South American.
or Central American... but if you are in that special country in the northern part of America, then you are United Statian, like David.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAhahahahahaah
He called me a United Statian! Hilarious!
Welcome to America, Mr. David, our beautiful continent. We welcome all our countries here.
Americasians!
hahahah
Ah! It already existed, I had forgotten, "Pan-American", and it would be the English equivalent of "americano" of Spanish. That's why there shouldn't be a Spanish version of this word, but to create more confusion there is! "panamericano".
There were almost going to be two nations with the word America in their names, and in fact there were for 16 years. From 1823 to 1839 the "República Federal de Centro América" existed, today we know them as El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, some of them still keep the name "América Central" on their national coats of arms.
That is correct! This is an example on how the world saw the vision of the United States as annexing as many colonies/states to form a union in the continent America. Thus, the Central American countries saw that move and formed a union between the five countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They adopted the name of Provincias Unidas de Centro America or United Provinces of Central America. So instead of calling them states, as the United States and Mexico, the Central American countries decided to use Provinces instead. Their union didn't last that long, but they kept a few of the things which made them a union. Some of the symbols like in their flags come from that era when they were united. The five volcanoes in their coins or in their emblems and the five stars in the Honduran flag are meant to symbolize their unity.
in fact their flags are daughters of the Argentine flag! because it was a ship of the revolutionary government of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata (current Republic of Argentina) under the command of the French libertarian Hipólito Bouchard liberated those lands from Spanish rule and in gratitude they honored the light blue and white flag of that ship