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 (1362)
Lots of interesting stuff here: http://www.cecies.org/ediciones_digitales.asp
This is a great resource.
German, please look up how words are used in Spanish before you start posting nonsense about how the words are used “incorrectly” only in English. You don’t even know how words are used in your own language (Holanda and holandés, for example), so why would we take your word on how words are used in English or any other language? You have absolutely no clue what you are writing about. Do some basic research. This assumes that you have the intellectual ability to do basic research. So far you haven’t proved that you have this ability.
http://www.rae.es/recursos/diccionarios
What have we learned today? Once again, German is posting things that are factually inaccurate. It isn’t wrong to refer to the Netherlands as ‘Holland’. Again, it’s simply the difference between a common or colloquial name and an official name.
It’s not just the Americans who use ‘Holland’ to refer to the Netherlands. The Dutch do it. Speakers of many other languages do it. The Dutch government does it. Spanish speakers do it.
German, please learn how to do some basic research, and how to cite actual facts, before posting again. You are contributing absolutely nothing. You never post relevant facts that come from reputable sources. You just post your feelings and your uninformed and false ideas about how things are or how you feel they should be. You are trying to pass off your fantasy world as reality. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Holland is a region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. The name Holland is also frequently used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. This usage is commonly accepted in other countries,[2] and sometimes employed by the Dutch themselves.[2] However, some in the Netherlands, particularly those from regions outside Holland, may find it undesirable[2] or misrepresentative to use the term for the whole country.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland
El nombre Holanda designa estrictamente una región occidental de los Países Bajos, dividida en dos provincias, Holanda del Norte y Holanda del Sur: «También en los Países Bajos, y sobre todo en la región de Holanda [...], grandes extensiones de la llanura interior se encuentran por debajo del nivel del mar» (RdgzPose Marco [Esp. 1995]). No obstante, es frecuente y admisible emplearlo en el habla corriente para referirse a todo el país, uso que no debe extenderse a textos oficiales: «Le preguntaban por su hija Máxima, la futura reina de Holanda» (Clarín [Arg.] 20.6.01). Por esta razón, también se emplea comúnmente el término holandés como gentilicio del país y como nombre del idioma: «Eurodiputados alemanes, holandeses y suecos reclamaron una reforma en profundidad de la PAC» (NCastilla [Esp.] 1.3.01); «Mi padre no entendía el holandés tan bien como yo» (Semprún Autobiografía [Esp. 1977]).
http://lema.rae.es/dpd/?key=Holanda
This is the definition of ‘holandés’ from WordReference.com. Notice that the word can refer to all Dutch people, not just those from the provinces of North and South Holland.
https://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=holandés
This is a quote from a Dutch woman from a few days ago. She refers to her country as Holland.
Her suitcase (also orange) had been stolen from her car after she arrived in France, but it had not quenched her mood. She had been depending on the kindness of strangers-who-were-not-really-strangers-because-we-are-all-Dutch to provide her with emergency money and emergency orange clothing.
“It doesn’t matter what club you support back home, you’re from Holland,” she said.
https://tinyurl.com/yxwhmp2n
Most of the Dutchmen that foreign traders dealt with were Hollanders, literally from Holland. Hence, when talking about the Netherlands, this became the accepted way of referring to the country and its people. Over the years both names have come to be accepted, although the official name, of course, remains the Netherlands.
Though it is generally accepted that the Netherlands is referred to as Holland in many different languages, some Dutch people, especially those not from North or South Holland, do not like the habit. This website used to use ‘Holland’ instead of ‘the Netherlands’ to make page and menu titles shorter, but we received emails from Dutch visitors who objected.
https://web.archive.org/web/20161027142541/http://sweden.nlembassy.org/you-and-netherlands
These are two different paragraphs from a website of the Dutch government. They explain that many different languages use ‘Holland’ to refer to the Netherlands. They explain why. They explain that some Dutch people do this as well. They explain that the government itself used to use ‘Holland’ to refer to the Netherlands on the very website from which these paragraphs are quoted.
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.