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It's been going on since long before you were born. John Adams(our second President) called the United States "America" in his inaugural address. [1] We use "T
by Hasu 12y ago
It's been going on since long before you were born. John Adams(our second President) called the United States "America" in his inaugural address. [1]
We use "The Americas" to refer to the continents as a pair, and prepend a cardinal direction to refer to one of them individually.
Citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia call themselves Australians, despite there being other governments on the continent of Australia.
[1]: http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres15.html http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres15.html
- kissickas 12y agoPapua New Guinea, East Timor, and some Indonesian islands, if anyone else is curious exactly what else is on the same shelf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_%28continent%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_%28continent%29
- aestra 12y agoMany cultures consider "The Americas" to be one continent - America.
- Hasu 12y agoThat's true, but the United States and most other English-speaking countries do consider them to be separate continents, and that's why we refer to them that way.