4 ms·
I 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 Statia
by BbzzbB 4y ago
I 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.
- BbzzbB 4y agoWhich is something I've heard for the first time in this thread. I understand it's true, but isn't it a bit of a legal formality? When you go thru Mexican customs, it says Mexico, not Estados Unidos Mexicanos or United Mexican States (from the North). The passport says Mexico in bold on top and the full formal name on the crest. The U.N. seat's plate says Mexico. Americans tend to even abbreviate their country to the US or United States, which makes états-uniens fair game in my book. I could be off base, but do Mexicans ever designate their country as Estados Unidos?
- bombcar 4y agoThey don't, partially because "that name" is already taken by the so-called America. Arguably their name translates as "United Mexican States" whereas the USA has "of America" in it, nobody calls it the "United American States". My petition to rename the USA to solve this by labeling everything MURICA has stalled in committee it seems.
- Apocryphon 4y agoI wonder if there are any other United Kingdoms out there besides Britain.
- bombcar 4y agoApparently not https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/official-names-of-countries https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/official-... - the UK name is a particular oddity based on how it came about (most other "united kingdoms" have probably become republics or absorbed the smaller kingdom).
- jleyank 4y agoYank. Historically based, no ambiguity.
- jhbadger 4y agoThere's a lot of ambiguity. Yes, many people outside the US use the term to refer to people from the US in general, but technically Yanks/Yankees are only the people from New England (the Northeastern US states). Someone from the US South or West aren't Yankees.
- jleyank 4y agoI thought this was referring to us-ians outside the us. Granted there are regional differences inside that are unknown outside. But to the rest of the English speaking world, yank is from the us. And Canadians aren’t Americans, Scots aren’t British or English and only a smaller portion of the Irish won’t get real offended if they’re not called Irish. Significant differences between Quebec and the rest of Canada but unless they’ve visited they probably going to lump them all as Canadians. Pro tip: try not to do this, listen for the accent.