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It's not valid to want to acknowledge the fact that not all of your continent is part of the USA? The United States of America is an embodiment of "manifest de

It's not valid to want to acknowledge the fact that not all of your continent is part of the USA? The United States of America is an embodiment of "manifest destiny", which is a declaration of intent to conquer the sovereign people of the continent.

bostonpete 5y ago
It's just etymology at this point -- a lot of words have a history or literal meaning that wouldn't make them a good choice if we were starting from scratch today.
refurb 5y ago
Exactly. I’ve been disturbed by the fact people still use the term “grapefruit”. It’s clearly not a grape!!!
chitowneats 5y ago
If you come up with an actually pronounceable name (so not USAer or USAian), we'll consider it before dropping your suggestion in the paper shredder. It's quite presumptuous to demand the people of another country refer to themselves in a particular way. You are free to call us whatever you want amongst yourselves. We do it with Germany/Deutschland and they don't seem to mind that much. But we're not demanding that they refer to themselves by our name for them.
- TMWNN 5y ago
  >It's quite presumptuous to demand the people of another country refer to themselves in a particular way. Not just Americans. In Portuguese, Americans (that is, those from and of the USA) are often called americanos. In French, américain is much more commonly used than États-Unien. The Spanish meaning of americano that does not include Americans in this way is very unusual among major Western languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_%28word%29#Other_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_%28word%29#Other_lang.... I don't mean to say that the equivalent of "American" in those languages is the only way to refer to those of the USA, or that equivalents to "USA" and such don't exist. In Portuguese, Italian, and German, however, saying Americano/Americano/Amerikanisch would generally be understood as referring to that of the USA without additional context, as opposed to a Brazilian or Argentinean, in a way that Americano wouldn't in Spanish.

bostonpete 5y ago

It's just etymology at this point -- a lot of words have a history or literal meaning that wouldn't make them a good choice if we were starting from scratch today.

refurb 5y ago

Exactly. I’ve been disturbed by the fact people still use the term “grapefruit”. It’s clearly not a grape!!!

chitowneats 5y ago

If you come up with an actually pronounceable name (so not USAer or USAian), we'll consider it before dropping your suggestion in the paper shredder. It's quite presumptuous to demand the people of another country refer to themselves in a particular way. You are free to call us whatever you want amongst yourselves. We do it with Germany/Deutschland and they don't seem to mind that much. But we're not demanding that they refer to themselves by our name for them.

TMWNN 5y ago
>It's quite presumptuous to demand the people of another country refer to themselves in a particular way. Not just Americans. In Portuguese, Americans (that is, those from and of the USA) are often called americanos. In French, américain is much more commonly used than États-Unien. The Spanish meaning of americano that does not include Americans in this way is very unusual among major Western languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_%28word%29#Other_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_%28word%29#Other_lang.... I don't mean to say that the equivalent of "American" in those languages is the only way to refer to those of the USA, or that equivalents to "USA" and such don't exist. In Portuguese, Italian, and German, however, saying Americano/Americano/Amerikanisch would generally be understood as referring to that of the USA without additional context, as opposed to a Brazilian or Argentinean, in a way that Americano wouldn't in Spanish.