Even when we stated on our home page that this site is not about demonyms, because of popular demand, we are forced to clarify on this issue.
What is Demonyms?
A demonym is a name given to natives or residents of a certain or specific place. The term gentilic was used previously but is now uncommon.
A demonym is usually, but not always, derived from the name of a place.
So what about the people from the United States?
It's wide known that many people use the term American to refer to the people from the United States of America, hence overlapping the demonyms of the inhabitants of the continent of America (remember that America is one whole continent with three sub continents) with the inhabitants of the country.
So many scholars have proposed the use of many terms to solve this misuse: US American and Unitedstatesian and USian among others.
We strongly believe that US American is a fair demonym for the people of the United States of America; fair for them and fair for the continent inhabitants.
Comments (2)
Just call us Usonians.
From some of the text on this website, it looks like English is not your first language. That's fine if it isn't but as such, it makes me wonder if you're trying to change the English language to fit something it didn't when you learned the language. For example, when I learned Spanish, I had to accept that "americano" didn't refer to my nationality. I was fine with that, and I adapted. How ridiculous would it be for me to go around correcting the 600 million people that spoke the language before me?
In the same way, I think that learners of English should adapt when they speak English. Don't expect the hundreds of millions of speakers that spoke before you to adapt just to fit your preference.
According to Oxfords dictionary, American is the demonym of the people of Americas
The same dictionary lists another definition that defines American as a demonym of people of the United States. That's my point: there are two definitions for the same word. That happens all the time in linguistics, and my point in my comment above is that it's ridiculous to try and change that. "American" refers to both someone that lives on one of the two continents named America, as well as someone who lives in the only country with the word "America" in its name: the United States of America.
If i can identify as a he/she she/he shemale trans tranny whatever....then why can't i identify with being rom America?