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It's incorrect but widely assumed that if someone says "America" they mean the USA. What's funny about it?
by themitigating 4y ago
It's incorrect but widely assumed that if someone says "America" they mean the USA.
What's funny about it?
- rob74 4y agoThat Canada is also located in America, and if someone from Canada identifies "America" with the US they are belittling their own country? I mean, the sentence wouldn't have been less understandable if they had used "US-style" instead of "American-style"?
- junofan 4y agoCanada is located in North America.
- themitigating 4y agoEveryone uses the term "America" to the US and even if they are referring to the both continents they say "The Americas". There isn't even a contient named "America"
- prmoustache 4y agoI know a number of mexican people who hate that dubious automatic America / USA association.
- alecco 4y ago"America" was originally what is now called South America. Mercator then called "America" both North and South. Then common use in English forced "America" to mean United States of America only. Schoolchildren in the rest of the countries are told "America" is a continent united by a continuous mountain range going from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. I guess this will go away once education is globalized and homogenized into mainstream corporate narratives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas#Etymology_and_naming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas#Etymology_and_naming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Cordillera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Cordillera
- philwelch 4y agoYeah, sorry, if North and South America are all one continent, then Europe, Asia, and Africa are all one continent, too. In fact the Darien Gap is completely impassible, very much unlike the Urals or the Sinai.
- virgulino 4y ago>Yeah, sorry, if North and South America are all one continent, then Europe, Asia, and Africa are all one continent, too. In fact the Darien Gap is completely impassible, very much unlike the Urals or the Sinai. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent North America and South America are treated as separate continents in the seven-continent model. However, they may also be viewed as a single continent known as America. This viewpoint was common in the United States until World War II, and remains prevalent in some Asian six-continent models. The single American continent model remains the more common view in France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and Latin American countries. The Darien Gap is "impassable" only because it is a protected forest and therefore roads and railways are not allowed.
- hydrok9 4y agoIn Europe they consider North, Central, and South America to all be one continent called, "America."
- justsomehnguy 4y agoCan't say for everyone else, but here there are America and South America. Therm term North America is a pretty much used only in geo and historic contexts, almost never in a political one.
- hydrok9 4y agoAhh I didn't know that. I remember being there in high school and our tour guide laughing when we said there were 7 continents. Here it's always "N.A."
- jasode 4y ago>That Canada is also located in America, I didn't downvote you but to explain what you see as an inconsistency: all forms of language and terms don't always match the mathematical/geometric/spatial definitions. - geometry view: North America is the continent and both Canada & USA are spatial subsets - conversational language view: "America" is linguistically used as synonym for "USA" without any confusion because of context Same idea as recent news headlines that say, "Asian powers are unlikely to ease Russia's economic woes"[1] If one is stuck on the geography fact that Russia is actually the largest country in Asia and bigger than China, that headline makes no sense. (Why can't an Asian power like Russia ease its economic woes?!?) But if you accept that "Asia powers" is often a synonym for "China/India" that excludes Russia, the intended meaning can be parsed. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Asian+powers+are+unlikely+to+ease+Russia%27s+economic+woes https://www.google.com/search?q=Asian+powers+are+unlikely+to...
- BbzzbB 4y agoI feel your gripe, in Québec we sometimes make a point of saying "états-uniens" (rather than "américains") which rolls of the tongue smoothly, but United Statians doesn't ring as well in English. What good word is there to call Americans other than Americans? I've never heard someone use another term in English. However if it's belittling Canada, it's certainly belittling the other 55 countries of the Americas that seem forgotten in this thread (say 54, Mexico is mentioned).
- nicoburns 4y ago"US Citizen" or "from the US" tends to get used if trying to avoid the word American or be more specific. But "American" is definitely much, much more common.
- BbzzbB 4y agoI mean, that works for people of any country/region, but it doesn't really solve the misnomer that is the name designating habitants of the USA. That is, if it even is a misnomer for being "non-inclusive", after all the USA is the only country with America in it's name, while the preceding part of the name is kind of descriptive. We don't use "Democratic Republics", "United" and "Islands" for designating people from countries with those, maybe it's fair to do the same with Americans (tho Americans say the US/United States so it's also fair to use that as a base for the name).
- seretogis 4y ago"US citizen" excludes a huge number of people who live in the USA but do so without the benefits of citizenship, so that isn't great either. "American" being synonymous with "people from the USA" may not be completely accurate but it seems the best of available options.
- bombcar 4y agoWhich is amusing because the official name of Mexico is “ Estados Unidos Mexicanos” which is “états-uniens” also.
- 4y ago
- shkkmo 4y agoIn English at least 'Canada is also located in America' is not correct. It should either be 'Canada is also located in the Americas' or 'Canada is also located in North America'.
- vehemenz 4y agoYou are confusing America, the continent, with America the country. In conventional English, in most of the world, United States residents are called "Americans."
- thaumasiotes 4y agoThere's nothing incorrect about the fact that "American" refers specifically to the USA. Compare this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans > Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.
- rob74 4y agoOkay, TIL. However, if you look at the "language versions" of that Wikipedia page, that also explains my confusion: Deutsch: "US-Amerikaner" Español: "Estadounidense" Italiano: "Statunitensi" ... so there are plenty of languages that do make a distinction between "American living on the American continent(s)" and "American from the US". Full disclosure: I'm from Germany...
- j-bos 4y agoMinor quible, but most spanish speakers I know refer to people from the USA as Americanos. Estadounidenses gets used as part of legalese and in the context of non US nationalism.