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?
Here we will show you some wrong and correct uses of the term America:
Please, note that this page in not about demonyms (gentilics) but about the way to call a country.
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Let the world know that USA should not be called America! America is one whole continent.
Comments (1254)
You guys don’t know how much joy I get out of the fact that so many people around the world use ‘America’ and ‘American’ in a way that you dislike so much. You have to hear it all the time. I love it.
And your false sense of intellectual and moral superiority. It’s so amusing. Endless entertainment. Thanks.
Argumentum ad populum is a logical fallacy. So sure thing. doesn't change the truth of the fact that the United States is only part of what genuinely America hence American is not a nationality.
As you've been made well aware.
You haven’t informed anyone of anything. Your “arguments” are a No Fact Zone.
"Someone born in Brazil is an American. Anyone born on the western hemisphere is an American. American is not a nationality."
--Karen Allen
It is a nationality. It also refers to a continental affiliation.
the official paper where one becomes a citizen of the U.S. says "U.S. Citizenship" and not American citizen. If it were a nationality, it would say the latter but it doesn't because it is wrong. It is erroneously to continue something that has been thought as correct but it is not. Just because public picked up a saying that has been spread erroneously for centuries does not make it correct. America is a continent, not a nation. The nation of the United States bears the name of the continent in which it was founded and that is the reason for its inclusion on the long name "United States of America". Not that the nation was given the name America and then later united as States, nope. History tells us that they were sovereign States which united in one common ideal to stay stronger together in the new world hence the continent, America.
Correct, if the term American were to ever be used in the U.S. Constitution; it would effectively grant every American citizen ( from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego Argentina) the rights and privileges intend solely for U.S. Citizens. Including the right to run for office and vote in U.S. elections.
Official names aren’t the only names that exist and they aren’t the only ones that are correct. This explains how billions of people call US citizens ‘Americans’ with only rare instances of confusion.
Obviously names can be used to refer to various things. How is it “correct” for ‘America’ to refer to a soccer team but “incorrect” for it to refer to a country? What’s the rule than unambiguously explains this? The soccer team is within the continent. So is the country. The soccer team is named after the continent. So is the country. Please provide a link to the universal law of naming that explains how the former is “correct” and the latter is “incorrect”.
You don’t really believe that such a rule exists, do you? If it does, why don’t you ever quote it? Is it just because your Google skills are weak?
David you live in that fantasy world that has been created to believe that the name America was actually coined for a nation. But at the same time you understand that the name was coined for a continent. You are a confused mind. That soccer team is named "America" in honor of the continent but naming a soccer team does not in fact take away the name of the continent and the people in those countries belonging to it. When the nation names itself the same way as the continent in which it is located and taking at the same time the rights to millions of people to also bear that name as continental citizens, that is an issue.
Obviously United States is promoted as America to justify misrepresenting the term American. Think we can all appreciate the U.S. narrative.
There's really nothing more to it.
The accurate terms are United Statesian, U.S. Citizen ... or U.S. American (which is a subset of full set of what is American) explicitly referring to American from the United States e.g. U.S. Post Office.
'United States of America'
We all know, the ‘Nazareth’ in ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ refers to the Biblical City. This hence means that ‘Nazareth’ cannot refer to the Jesus of Nazareth. But in fact refers to the city 'Nazareth' from which 'Jesus' is inferred to be 'OF.'
The ‘America’ in United States of America refers to the continent. Today, in English, ‘America’ by itself almost always refers to the USA. These are facts.
Names can refer to more than one thing. That which names refer to can change over time. This doesn’t break any rules of naming. These are facts.
If people started calling Jesus ‘Nazareth’, then ‘Nazareth’ would refer to Jesus.
This is what happened with ‘America’. It doesn’t matter that you don’t like it. Your dislike obviously didn’t prevent it from happening. Do you know why? Because your preferences don’t determine how people use names.
It would refer to Jesus in addition to referring to the city.
So you must also believe that RuPaul is really a woman.
Exactly, because Jesus comes from the city but he's got a real name :Jesus. Unlike the U.S. who is using the name America as their name now when it is the place where it came from just as Jesus was called from Nazareth. You yourself understand this very well right? This is what I have been telling you. U.S. adding the name "America" meant that the nation came from America and that is not the name of the nation but a continent. If you put the two examples together, Jesus = U.S., Jesus of Nazareth, U.S. of America, both have a biographical place where they came from and not that it is their name or if not Jesus would had changed his name to "Nazareth" and so the U.S. using the name of "America" would had correlated to that but you know this didn't happen because it is wrong.
América/America is not a country or a nation.
Therefore, 'American' isn't a nationality or a citizenship.
Anyone who uses these 2 terms as such is due to selfishness, ignorance, conceitedness, laziness, stubbornness, indoctrination, and/or arrogance.
Those are the rules, David!
That's why it's incorrect, David!
United States is America like RuPaul is a woman. No sensible human being buys into that malarkey.
Discover what is genuinely America and all that's American
https://www.loc.gov/item/74693287/
https://youtu.be/4AIHVYpUc0E
Very good, although it is actually "United Mexican States", not United States of Mexico :)
“David, and where did the United States get the name America from????”
Misses the Obvious, as we both know, the ‘America’ in ‘United States of America’ refers to the continent. I have stated this many times. As we both know, this doesn’t mean that ‘America’ does not, or cannot, refer to the USA. This doesn’t mean that ‘America’ isn’t an unofficial name of the USA. This doesn’t mean that it’s “incorrect” to call the USA ‘America’?
Why do you keep asking me this question? I have already answered it correctly a number of times. What do you think you are proving?
So shameless
How is it shameless?
I ask you because you keep saying that America has different meanings. You yourself wrote that America means the name of the continent. Then you say that the USA can be named America. I ask you then if the USA can be named America and the meaning of America is originally a continent how can a nation/country be called the same name as the continent in which that nation was founded on? The only way that what you say could be understandable is that people have been wrongly using the name America to call a country which its name is United States and is in America. So the supposed meaning you talk about is just people calling the U.S. "America" because somewhere someone started to call it that way but it really means the continent.
I see that David is back with the idea that America can have many meanings. When it actually originated to be the name of the western hemisphere new world and not a country or nation, America, is and will always be what was originally meant to be, the name of the new continent. Those using the name America are honoring the new continent by using it as their own names, names of sports teams, or the United States which were founded in the continent of America.
I don’t deny that ‘America’ originally referred to South America. What I mean by “multiple meanings” is that the name is used to refer to various things. It has multiple referents.
You agree with me and the truth by stating that the name refers to various things. The bulk of our disagreement is based on your misunderstanding, or your pretended misunderstanding, of what I mean by “multiple meanings”. ‘America’, in a very basic sense, means ‘the land of Amerigo’ or some version of that. I have never denied this, or that ‘America’ first referred to South America, or that many people use the name to refer to all of the Americas.
Most of my posts counter the false claim that it’s “incorrect” to call the USA ‘America’. When I say that ‘America’ can “mean” the USA, I am not saying that its original meaning was ‘USA’ and not ‘the land of Amerigo’. That’s absurd. I am using the word ‘mean’ in a very common and standard way. You misunderstand me, either intentionally or unintentionally.
Sure, America was written on a map where South America is today, but you keep staying on that without going further into how the entire continent was later named America. Is there a reason why you keep avoiding how the name was coined and how it was explained in the Universalis Cosmographia by Martin Waldseemuller and Mattias Ringmann. Everything in the new world was that continent, and when all was mapped and discovered became the fourth part of the world, a new continent, America. The U.S. took the name of the continent and it seems that it wants to keep it and change the continent's name to The Americas.
Please read carefully & thoroughly!
Regardless of what continental model anyone follows, it doesn't automatically make América a country & 'American' a term only for the U.S.A.🇺🇲!👍
América definitely is not a country or a nation. Therefore, 'American' isn't a nationality, a citizenship, or a term exclusively for the U.S.A.🇺🇲
Anyone who uses these terms as such is due to selfishness, ignorance, conceitedness, laziness, stubbornness, indoctrination, and/or arrogance!
Furthermore, an American is from the Continent of América!👍
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 has a simple, basic, generic, & descriptive name that's easy to comprehend & not misinterpret in any way or language!
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 simply means we are STATES, that are UNITED, on the Continent 'OF' AMÉRICA!
Not América of the United States!!!😏
If you want to separate it into 2 continents, you'll have to call the southern one "America" and the northern one "Parias"
Or simply use "America" for most part of the continent, and Anglo America for the very North section, mainly including Canada and the United States.
Guyana speaks English and isn't in the Northern part.
Have to? No. North America and South America work perfectly and are very well-established.
There aren’t any rules that dictate which names we “have to” use. That’s why the whole world doesn’t have to call the Americas ‘America’. We don’t have to call North America ‘Parias’ just because that’s what appeared on the 1507 Waldseemüller map. The whole world doesn’t have to use the names that some Latin Americans prefer.
The whole world has to use the names that United Statians prefer, of course manipulating the media. Check how they use Wikipedia to call the US like the continent.
China had to come to start giving them lessons.
Everyone can use whatever name they want. If they choose to use a name that isn’t common in the language they are speaking, then they are responsible for any confusion.
English-language Wikipedia and English-language media often refer to the USA as ‘America’ because that is what it’s often called in English. There’s no manipulation. They’re just using English properly and in a way that English speakers easily understand.