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That's fine. You have your terminology and others have theirs. It might (not) surprise you to learn that what I call Cyprus is called "Zypern" by Germans and

That's fine. You have your terminology and others have theirs. It might (not) surprise you to learn that what I call Cyprus is called "Zypern" by Germans and there are a lot more copper related names for the place. Closer to my home, what I call London is Londres in France and London in German. The city in question was named by a bunch of what would become Italians (Romans) - Londinium was named by a murderous bunch of colonial invaders. I have insinuated an awful lot from your comment and "replied" to those insinuations as best I can. I am somebody and I use the term America routinely to describe the USA and the term Americas for the entire continent. North America is US + CA and Southern America is Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and ... oh there are rather a lot more. There is also Central America which is the countries that join the north to the south. I get that you have an axe to grind about which America is which and who owns which name. I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too. I try to understand all points of view - its quite interesting.

meiraleal 2y ago
> I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too. I never met a Brazilian that cares about it tho. There was a big national uproar a few decades ago when some Japanese company tried to patent the use of the Açaí fruit and trademark. now about America and Americans. South Americans and North Americans are as much "Americans" as Northern and Southern Europeans are Europeans. Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos (what do they call Canadians? I guess just Canadians) lowers our history and culture. North-Americans or US-Americans or whatever-Americans shouldn't be the ones defining who is American, who is Latino-American, who is Native-American, Afro-American. Not surprising, there isn't a Euro-American tag.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  >Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos "Latinos" are what Spanish and (to a much lesser extent) Portuguese-speaking people living in the USA call themselves (and their relatives still living in other Latin-American countries). They seem to prefer it to "Hispanics". And the term only applies to people speaking Latin-derived languages (i.e., Spanish and Portuguese). So the people living in Belize, for instance, are not "Latinos" at all. Similarly, African-Americans were named that way by themselves, to distinguish themselves from the majority white Americans, since they had a very different and unique culture and history. It wasn't some kind of pejorative they were stuck with by outsiders; they came up with it on their own because they were tired of being called "negroes", "colored", or much worse. You seem to have a very warped perception of who thinks what, and as the other poster said, you obviously have an ax to grind. People in the USA are called "Americans" because it's (part of) the name of their country, and there's no other convenient and pronounceable demonym to describe them, and there's no other country in the world that has the word "America" in it.
  - jaimebuelta 2y ago
    According to surveys, most people in the US prefer to refer themselves as “Hispanic”, though there’s a generational change https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/u-s-hispanics-preferences-among-pan-ethnic-terms/ https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/u-...
    - SllX 2y ago
      They generally prefer to be called what they are: Mexicans, Salvadorans, Cubans, etc. The ones born here in the US of A even often just prefer Americans sometimes, although that differs from person to person. Pan-ethnic terms are the creatures of demographers, political scientists and others of the social sciences. We don’t really need that crap and it’s just there to make their jobs easier.
  - fuzztester 2y ago
    >People in the USA are called "Americans" because it's (part of) the name of their country, and there's no other convenient and pronounceable demonym to describe them There is another demonym, although much less used: USian. It's quite convenient and pronounceable. Some HNers use it: >https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=usian&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Also see the Wikipedia definition of the word you used - demonym: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym The first two sentences at the above link: >A demonym (/ˈdɛmənɪm/; from Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos) 'people, tribe' and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') or gentilic (from Latin gentilis 'of a clan, or gens')[1] is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place.[2] Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, state, country, and continent).
    - meiraleal 2y ago
      I'm going with this one for now on. Thanks! Thanks also to all USians that commented. As a fellow American, I think we should be more United! :)
- jaimebuelta 2y ago
  Interestingly, there’s a word in Spanish for people from the USA that’s “Estadounidense”, literally “Unitedstatian” which is widely used (at least in Spain) I find it a fascinating word and a way of precisely naming to keep the “American” word to be more broadly applicable, at least in theory
  - bentley 2y ago
    Do people of Estados Unidos Mexicanos count as estadounidense?
    - jolmg 2y ago
      No https://dle.rae.es/estadounidense https://dle.rae.es/estadounidense https://dem.colmex.mx/Ver/estadounidense https://dem.colmex.mx/Ver/estadounidense
  - adastra22 2y ago
    It is both less specific (there are many countries named “United States of …”) and unpronounceable in English.
    - returningfory2 2y ago
      IMO a better English translation of Estadounidense is United Stateser (like people in Maine are Mainers).
- adastra22 2y ago
  Americans don’t refer, in English, to the inhabitants of countries south of them as “latinos.” You are simply incorrect on this. Among Spanish speakers the word is used, but it is a cultural not geographic term. There are ISA and Canadian Latinos too.
yulker 2y ago
Mexico is part of North America, interesting you left it out.
- throaway89 2y ago
  as is Greenland
  - reshlo 2y ago
    Along with the Caribbean, Bermuda, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
    - throaway89 2y ago
      true but a lot of people understandably assume those are part of Central America
marcosdumay 2y ago
> I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too. I have never seen anybody pissed about that one. But then, I have never seen anybody insisting that "Amazon" means the company and the geographic region better shut-up and forfeit its name.

meiraleal 2y ago

> I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too. I never met a Brazilian that cares about it tho. There was a big national uproar a few decades ago when some Japanese company tried to patent the use of the Açaí fruit and trademark. now about America and Americans. South Americans and North Americans are as much "Americans" as Northern and Southern Europeans are Europeans. Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos (what do they call Canadians? I guess just Canadians) lowers our history and culture. North-Americans or US-Americans or whatever-Americans shouldn't be the ones defining who is American, who is Latino-American, who is Native-American, Afro-American. Not surprising, there isn't a Euro-American tag.

shiroiushi 2y ago
>Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos "Latinos" are what Spanish and (to a much lesser extent) Portuguese-speaking people living in the USA call themselves (and their relatives still living in other Latin-American countries). They seem to prefer it to "Hispanics". And the term only applies to people speaking Latin-derived languages (i.e., Spanish and Portuguese). So the people living in Belize, for instance, are not "Latinos" at all. Similarly, African-Americans were named that way by themselves, to distinguish themselves from the majority white Americans, since they had a very different and unique culture and history. It wasn't some kind of pejorative they were stuck with by outsiders; they came up with it on their own because they were tired of being called "negroes", "colored", or much worse. You seem to have a very warped perception of who thinks what, and as the other poster said, you obviously have an ax to grind. People in the USA are called "Americans" because it's (part of) the name of their country, and there's no other convenient and pronounceable demonym to describe them, and there's no other country in the world that has the word "America" in it.
- jaimebuelta 2y ago
  According to surveys, most people in the US prefer to refer themselves as “Hispanic”, though there’s a generational change https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/u-s-hispanics-preferences-among-pan-ethnic-terms/ https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/u-...
  - SllX 2y ago
    They generally prefer to be called what they are: Mexicans, Salvadorans, Cubans, etc. The ones born here in the US of A even often just prefer Americans sometimes, although that differs from person to person. Pan-ethnic terms are the creatures of demographers, political scientists and others of the social sciences. We don’t really need that crap and it’s just there to make their jobs easier.
- fuzztester 2y ago
  >People in the USA are called "Americans" because it's (part of) the name of their country, and there's no other convenient and pronounceable demonym to describe them There is another demonym, although much less used: USian. It's quite convenient and pronounceable. Some HNers use it: >https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=usian&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Also see the Wikipedia definition of the word you used - demonym: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym The first two sentences at the above link: >A demonym (/ˈdɛmənɪm/; from Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos) 'people, tribe' and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') or gentilic (from Latin gentilis 'of a clan, or gens')[1] is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place.[2] Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, state, country, and continent).
  - meiraleal 2y ago
    I'm going with this one for now on. Thanks! Thanks also to all USians that commented. As a fellow American, I think we should be more United! :)
jaimebuelta 2y ago
Interestingly, there’s a word in Spanish for people from the USA that’s “Estadounidense”, literally “Unitedstatian” which is widely used (at least in Spain) I find it a fascinating word and a way of precisely naming to keep the “American” word to be more broadly applicable, at least in theory
- bentley 2y ago
  Do people of Estados Unidos Mexicanos count as estadounidense?
  - jolmg 2y ago
    No https://dle.rae.es/estadounidense https://dle.rae.es/estadounidense https://dem.colmex.mx/Ver/estadounidense https://dem.colmex.mx/Ver/estadounidense
- adastra22 2y ago
  It is both less specific (there are many countries named “United States of …”) and unpronounceable in English.
  - returningfory2 2y ago
    IMO a better English translation of Estadounidense is United Stateser (like people in Maine are Mainers).
adastra22 2y ago
Americans don’t refer, in English, to the inhabitants of countries south of them as “latinos.” You are simply incorrect on this. Among Spanish speakers the word is used, but it is a cultural not geographic term. There are ISA and Canadian Latinos too.

yulker 2y ago

Mexico is part of North America, interesting you left it out.

throaway89 2y ago
as is Greenland
- reshlo 2y ago
  Along with the Caribbean, Bermuda, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
  - throaway89 2y ago
    true but a lot of people understandably assume those are part of Central America

marcosdumay 2y ago

> I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too. I have never seen anybody pissed about that one. But then, I have never seen anybody insisting that "Amazon" means the company and the geographic region better shut-up and forfeit its name.