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)
In the United States they have misnomers for everything. For example, "Holland" is a misnomer for the country "Netherlands". The truth is that Holland is a region on the western coast of the Netherlands. No matter what US citizens call that country, its correct name is Netherlands.
David: The only fact here is that there is no OFFICIAL document having "America" alone as the name of the U.S., and many OFFICIAL documents or institutions only say "US" not even "USA". America is not “the name” of the US, it is only the way many refer to it, PERIOD. The use of "America" instead of "US" is a custom originated by the same US inhabitants, and if from your point of view it is completely fair that people can decide, beyond official restrictions, to call a place with a name that make sense to them, and it is something that you respect and support, then it is also fair that many Mexicans call it "Gringolandia", mainly because they refuse to call it "America", and this is a fact. Are you Ok with that or you only support what fits your mindset? Do you think this is disrespectful? it is only the way everyone has learned to call each place, just as you argue about those who say “America” instead of US.
ENGLISH Wikipedia: "the new CONTINENT was named AMERICA after the Latin version of Vespucci's first name". And the bottom line is: In the English language, America is the name of a continent.
That’s the much less common meaning nowadays. Please tell us the most common meaning. I don’t expect a truthful answer.
Why even make your “arguments” if you are going to disregard facts that everyone is aware of? Aren’t you embarrassed? I am definitely embarrassed for you.
Why would many US citizens pay homage to Américo Vespucio (Amerigo Vespucci), a man who never set foot on the United States? He traveled to what today are Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
"There are currently two countries in the world with “United States” in their names"... blah, blah, bla... You're basically saying that you will call your country "America" because "United States" is already in use by someone else. So, why do you choose "America", when this name is also in use?
The adjective "United" is a modifier. The noun "States" is a subject. "Of" is a preposition. "America" is a prepositional object. The noun here is "States". That being said, the name of the country is "States". The facts that the States are united and located in America are complementary information.
Are you being serious?
Please note that my other post does not absolve the founding fathers of the United States of America from choosing an awkward and arrogant name for their new country. Residents of other countries in the Americas have a right to be annoyed with a country that names itself a shortened version of the continent it is on and shares with other countries. However, asking people to not call their country by its proper common name, is offensive in itself.
As a courtesy, I rarely use the lone term “America” to refer to the USA, but I reserve the right to occasionally do so without being harassed. And, I will continue to refer to myself and my fellow countrymen as “Americans” because it is the correct name for us.
In my opinion, American is NOT the correct name or demonym for your country. NO.
The Most Proper and Correct Name for your country is ‘U.S. AMERICAN(S)’!
Canadians, U.S. Americans, Mexicans and Central Americans are all Americans of the North!!! (That is the Northern Part of the Continent America)!!!
Now, stop calling yourself just American please. It’s annoying.
There are currently two countries in the world with “United States” in their names: the USA and Mexico. There have historically been several others including Brazil and Belgium. In all of these cases, the emphasis is not on the modifying phrase (e.g. Estados Unidos de...), but on the name (e.g. Mexico). Similarly, many countries’ formal names include the phrase “The republic of...”, but that phrase is dropped in the common name. For example, The Republic of Peru is not shortened to “The Republic” and it’s inhabitants are not referred to as “Republicans.”
While many Americans have adopted the term “The United States” as the shorter common name for the country (as a courtesy to other countries in North and South America), this is technically incorrect, which becomes apparent when one tries to find a name for the inhabitants of the USA. “United Statesians” doesn’t work because you can only add a demonym (e.g. the “an” in Cuban) to a proper place name which in this case is America.
"America" is not the proper place name for the United States. America is the whole continent, not one country.
Your personal definition of proper doesn’t change the fact that many hundreds of millions of people, who speak many different languages and live all over the world, use the word ‘America’ to refer to the USA. Because they do this, the most common meaning of ‘America’ in English and many other languages is the USA. Your preferences don’t change how words are used and what they mean.
How great can a country that murders to get his way from the very beginning of creation. “ U. S. Won the west”. Lol it was not a game and it wasn’t for sale. Like the Luisiana purchase. A French sold it to another European. And the native said “ what just happened? “. And now they want to steal the name . Give me a break!
Didn’t every existing country in the Americas kill to get its way from the very beginning? The vast majority certainly did. This doesn’t just apply to the United States. The Europeans started killing the natives as soon as the Europeans wanted something that the natives didn’t want to give. They were called conquistadores for a reason.
Yes, maybe they did kill natives, but in most instances they were defending themselves from the aggressive natives. However, most countries in Latin America did not kill all of their natives, in fact, the Spanish married natives and viceversa. The Amerindian traits are readily visible in our beautiful Latin people with olive skin and straight hairs. Many of the Indigenous tribes and customs are embedded within our cultures in many of our Latin American countries. This you can't say about the USA, where most of the natives were thrown out of their lands. Latin Americans would probably have more American Indigenous blood running through their veins than Anglo Americans.
The full name of our country is "The United States of America," so we call it "America" for short. By analogy, the full name of our southern neighbor is "The United States of Mexico," so it is called "Mexico" for short. It is an abbreviation rather than an attempt to usurp a continent.
But Mexico is not our continent's name. America is.
Sorry but this issue is not due to an analogy but that a country is using the name of the continent in which is in. The real name of Mexico is : United Mexican States.