Indeed, U.S.A. is not America!
America is the name of a whole continent. United States of America means that the United States belongs to America and NOT that America belongs to the United States. So, next time you want to refer to The United States of America, you can do it as U.S. or the States or whatever you want but not as only America. Gotcha?
How should I use the term America then?
Here we will show you some wrong and correct uses of the term America:
This is how we do it in America.
This is how we do it in the States.
- America is my country and I love it.
- The United States is my country and I love it.
- America lost the Vietnam war.
- U.S.A. lost the Vietnam war.
- Here in America we love Mc Donald's.
- Here in the U.S. we love Mc Donald's.
Please, note that this page in not about demonyms (gentilics) but about the way to call a country.
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Comments (1254)
So, South America is America and North America is Parias. Hence, we have "United States of Parias". What do you prefer to be called? Pariasinian? Parian? Please, remember that Parisian is already in use.
Of course we will stick with the names we already have. Why would it be otherwise?
And you can keep using the name ‘America’ for all of the Americas, even though that isn’t the original meaning. New meanings of the word have arisen over time. This is a normal part of language.
David wrote: "Mercator was the first, as far as we currently know, to record the concepts of North and South America. He did this in 1538. The Americans didn’t invent this idea. Spanish, Portuguese, and many other languages have terms or words for North and South America. Some see them as continents. Some see them as subcontinents. But the idea of dividing the Americas into smaller units did not originate after World War II as an American conspiracy to “steal” the words ‘America’ and ‘American’." We know that America the continent is subdivided into three regions; North, Central and South, as it is still called today.
only when people change their meanings words change but only then. Thus, perhaps the USA wanted to change the meaning of America it was when the continent was divided into two so that the name America could be freed to use. However, as you know, the word America did not change for millions of other people and has kept its original meaning which is the name of the continent.
As you know, its original meaning is South America. Look at your beloved 1507 Waldseemüller map.
Still waiting.
You had nothing. You have nothing. You will forever continue to have nothing.
Well, you do have your downvotes. I will give you that. But you don’t have much of anything else.
It was not until Mercator’s world map of 1538 that the name ‘America’ was first applied to North America.
The map is notable for a new interpretation of the name "America". As far as it is known, the new continent was named "America" by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507, who applied the name only to the southern continent.
This viewpoint was common over the years. However, Mercator viewed the landmass discovered by Columbus as a single part of the world comprising both continents and, in 1538, he signed on the map, mentioned above, accordingly, 'America. The northern part' and 'America. The southern part'.
http://expositions.nlr.ru/eng/map_merkator/2.php
Published in 1538, the Orbis Imago, is the first map of the world drawn up by Gerard Mercator. It is his second published map. It is not completely original: Mercator copied the Nova et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio by Orontius Finaeus from 1531, but made a few significant changes. For example, ‘America’ was used to refer to both North and South America for the first time, with both parts of the New World joined together as one continent. Mercator also separated Asia and North America.
http://bc.library.uu.nl/unusual-view-fairly-unknown-world.html
This is also the first map to apply the name America to the North American continent as well as to South America and to differentiate North and South America as separate continents. In using the term “America” in this way, Mercator shares responsibility with Martin Waldseemüller for naming the Western Hemisphere.
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/854/
“The name America, such a natural poetic counterpart to Asia, Africa and Europa, had filled a vacuum, and there was no going back, especially not after the young Gerardus Mercator, destined to become the century's most influential cartographer, decided that the whole of the New World, not just its southern part, should be so labeled. The two names he put on his 1538 world map are the ones we've used ever since: North America and South America.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-waldseemuller-map-charting-the-new-world-148815355/
The continent to the left side of Asia is not spelled ‘Europa’ with an ‘a’ at the end. It’s actually spelled with an ‘e’ at the end, such as ‘Europe’! Please be sure to correct your grammar next time! I don’t remember the last time Europe has been written as Europa before.
‘America’, when it was first used in 1507 on the Waldseemüller map, referred only to South America, not to both South America and North America. North America was labeled as ‘Parias’.
This is a highly detailed scan of the Waldseemüller map of 1507:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3200.ct000725C/
This scan clearly shows that ‘America’ labels only South America. It clearly shows that ‘Parias’ is used to label North America.
“North America is called ‘Parias’ – ‘America’ is used to label the South American coast all the way down to the present-day port of Cananéia, Brazil.”
https://bit.ly/2YTii9z
“Waldseemüller’s America actually identified what is today South America. “Parias” is the name Waldseemüller identified with what is today North America.”
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/apr25/america-beautiful/
How did the name "America" travel north? As they discovered lands and maps got revised, they included the north to be part of the entire American continent or new world. America, same as other continents, Europe, Asia etc, has a north, south and central. When people said south, they meant south of the continent of America, when they said north, they meant north of the continent of America. You and others, especially those who speak English, can not grasp this concept and began misusing the word and spreading the error universally by dividing the continent into two, so that the name America by itself would no longer be a conflict. That explains why the name America has been taught as if it is only the USA in certain countries.
So very truly, painfully, remarkably dumber than dirt.
Mercator was the first, as far as we currently know, to record the concepts of North and South America. He did this in 1538. The Americans didn’t invent this idea. Spanish, Portuguese, and many other languages have terms or words for North and South America. Some see them as continents. Some see them as subcontinents. But the idea of dividing the Americas into smaller units did not originate after World War II as an American conspiracy to “steal” the words ‘America’ and ‘American’.
“The name for the northern land mass, Parias, is derived from a passage in the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci....”
“Parias was described by Waldseemüller's follower, Johannes Schöner as: "The island of Parias, which is not a part or portion of the foregoing [America] but a large, special part of the fourth part of the world", indicating uncertainty as to its situation.”
“PARIAS and AMERICA, corresponding to North and South America, are separated by a strait in the region of the present Panama on the main map but on the miniature map inset into the upper-mid part of the main map the isthmus joining the two is unbroken, apparently demonstrating Waldseemüller's willingness to represent alternative solutions to a question yet unanswered.”
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Waldseemüller_map
The continent supports Spanish claims to the region by flying the flag of Castile, but is not given the name of America. Instead, in its southern regions, it is named ‘Parias’ in capital letters. So the great birth certificate of America actually calls North America ‘Parias’, a word taken from Vespucci’s account of his meeting with the local inhabitants who used it to designate their homeland.
The map reserves the name ‘America’ to describe the southern land mass, and is placed in the location of modern-day Brazil.”
From: A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Brotton; p. 174
Then why are you calling it "North America" when you should be calling it "Parias"?
Why “should” I call it Parias? What rule dictates that I “should” call it Parias? Why do you call the Americas ‘America’ when you “should” call it Parias and America?
You got nothing. Nothing!
Because of the text limit and the amount I have to say I'm going to post this in multiple parts, please understand I do this because I want to do the answer justice and I've found it isn't a simple one...
I originally showed up here because the question ad come up in my mind, is it proper that we, citizens of the United States of America get called/call ourselves Americans even though that's the name for the entire continent in what is considered the new world. t took a bit of research but i think I found the reason we have that name and why it will probably never go away. Believe it or not it has nothing to do with arrogance but rather history. The most straight forward answer I found has to do with the fact that historically people who began to emigrate here (here meaning the Americas as a whole) in the 1500's and after got called Americans by the rest of the world. As time went on and more and more British emigrated here to primarily North America the term British American was used to identify them.
Fast forward to around the 1770's and of course our revolution and split from Great Britain and the formation of the United States of America the British part was dropped and the term American stuck.
The next part has to do with conventional usage, here’s a few examples…
The United Mexican States -> Mexicans
The People's Republic of China -> Chinese
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -> British and Irish
The Russian Federation -> Russian
You don’t refer to Chinese for example of Republicans, you don’t refer to Russians as Federalists. It doesn’t make sense to do this by any stretch of the imagination because of how language works and how we were all taught to identify portions of the world. In our case there is US Citizen and American from the name of our country, for better or worse that’s it.
I’ve seen other nice names thrown out in the comments but none of them will probably catch on in conventional use and that is again part of the problem, conventional use. Not just by people here in the US but also around the world.
Each of us has many ways to describe the spot we live in this universe. I’ll give you an example (only going to drill down so far, you’ll get the idea). Keep in mind all of these our from a human point of view. If there are extraterrestrials they may call some things by different names and well that could make things very interesting…
Citizen of…
The Milky Way Galaxy -> No clue for common usage as it hasn’t been needed yet
The Solar System -> No clue for common usage as it hasn’t been needed yet
The Third Planet from the Sun or Sol -> No clue for common usage as it hasn’t been needed yet
The Earth -> Earthing or Terrian
The Western Hemisphere -> Westerner Maybe?
American Continent -> American
North American Sub Continent -> North American
United States of America -> American
Midwest Region of the United States of America -> Midwesterner
State of Indiana -> Hoosier (Only if born in the state), otherwise Citizen of Indiana (No other convention in use)
Northwest Indiana -> Still Hoosier but also Region Rat (Yes we consider it a compliment due to its origins)
I’m going to stop there but hopefully you get the idea. In some cases falling back on conventional use works fine in other cases not so much. The whole thing is none of us alive today picked what we are called we just got told that’s what we are. The titles we carry were started long ago and in some cases, like the name Hoosier, we have no clue where they came from. In other cases they are simply a product of our languages and how conventional use works in the language.
Hopefully this point of view helps at least with understanding. I know it isn’t a solution, not at least the one some would like to see.
but there's also the Republic of China. As for the United States, what about using the french term états-unien? or the Spanish word estadounidense? or the Italian word statunitense? or how about do what the Germans would do, using the terms US-Amerikanisch and US-Amerikaner? or how about we just say Usonian?
Why would we want or need to use words from other languages? We already have perfectly good words in English. The words are so good that many people all around the world, who speak many different languages, have adopted their version of ‘America’ and ‘American’ to mean the USA and its citizens.
Where are your facts, quotes, links, and citations? I am still waiting. If your arguments are so strong and obvious, and you aren’t the simpleminded ignoramuses that you very much seem to be, then why don’t you post relevant, verifiable material from reputable sources? Your fictive, whimsical notions are not facts and are not proof. Your fanciful musings only prove that you have no clue whatsoever.
If Uncle Sam invented the seven continent model after WWII, he should have also changed the name of the country to "United States of NORTH America". After all, that's how some people call it in Spanish.
English isn’t Spanish.
No. Spanish is more consistent and logic.
"Of America" is a postpositive adjective alluding to geographical location
So? What do you pretend that this proves?
Are you capable of formulating an argument, or will you just continue to post obvious facts of little to no relevance?
This proves that America is not the name of your country. America is the continent where the United States are, and this is the subject of this forum. If you don't understand this simple fact, please go back to school or find a mental health professional.
exactly
It proves nothing of the sort. Your logical fallacies aren’t facts and they don’t prove anything.