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 (1268)
Funny read from another site...
I understand why it’s problematic for US people to call themselves Americans in a way that diminishes other countries on the American continent. But like...US stands for United States...of America. So “American” is just the most logical shorthand??? It’s less of a “we are the superior America” and more of a “our dumbass, racist founding fathers gave us a bad name”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/b00d7690b278832532a56584227586be/tumblr_pfu09ja5KT1qb4vbh_500.jpg
Funny, but still no justification to continue doing it
Here is the English version of that funny picture you sent …
https://fr.memedroid.com/memes/detail/3069312
"At the time when the concept ‘public diplomacy’ was first coined by Gullion, the term was used to refer to previous propaganda activities conducted by the United Statian government during the Cold War in order to influence public opinion abroad."
- Dossiê Escola Inglesa, An English School Approach to Public Diplomacy (2015) Belo Horizonte v. 12, p. 11-17.
David, are you a honorable person? Or just an infamous US citizen? You decide. You government does not have to come up with rules for you to act with dignity.
This explains the US behavior. There is no justification. Again, you decide who you want to be.
Stop your idiotic, self-righteous moralizing, you moron. You don’t take personal responsibility for every bad thing that your government or fellow countrymen have ever done. Neither do I. So shut up. This site is about the name ‘America’. You idiots only produce ridiculous BS, so in order to distract from your feeble “arguments”, you try to make this a questions of morals, and you make the childish assumption that I must support every bad thing that has ever occurred at the hands of Americans. You never post relevant facts. You are intellectually inferior. Nice try, loser.
Le diste en el blanco Anónimo hauahauahaua. Le sacaste los papeles y le dolió.
It is not wrong in a language sense, or in a naming sense, to call the USA ‘America’. Mrs. Anonymous has been posting for years, yet she has never posted any proof that any rules of language or naming are being violated. Why is this? It’s very simple. No such rules or violations exist. There is no rule in any language that says that ‘America’ cannot be used to refer to the USA. ‘America’ originally referred to only South America. Then it referred to all of the Americas. It has been used in different languages to refer to different things. It is a Mexican professional soccer team. It is a woman’s name. Some towns have it as a name. It can refer to Latin America. It can refer to Spanish America. And, wait for it, it has been used to mean the USA. Again, it is not incorrect to use the word this way. No rules are being violated. Many people don’t like it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is not incorrect. Please stop lying and/or pretending.
Your “argument” has always been that you don’t like it, so it’s incorrect. That is not a real argument. Your preferences don’t negate the meanings of words. Your preferences don’t give your fictitious BS rules any authority. Your approval isn’t required. Your fantasies and desires don’t determine which meanings are acceptable. You are a simple-minded ignoramus. You are not the language police. You are not in charge. You aren’t in control of your native language, and you sure as sh1t aren’t in control of English or any other language. Stop embarrassing yourself, payasa.
Somehow you come to such absurd conclusions it is pathetic. And please don't put words in my mouth. Never said that to have taken the name of the continent is wrong because I don't like it. It is not about my preference or anyone's preference, it is what is obvious to see what happened throughout years with the name of the continent and then the USA taken it for itself. You hide your loosing argument under the disguise of it being the meaning of the word that it is contested. The only meaning that America has been known for is for the name of the person whom gave the name of the continent and anything after that is only taking it from that point. USA took it from the continent, and its meaning is the continent's name being carried over by a country but it was never first the country's name.
When people are losing the argument that America should be used to refer to US, they always try to bring the excuse of language. Repeat after me: LANGUAGE ISN'T A EXCUSE. Also America was not only used to refer to South America region, because the name was put there it doesn't mean it was only for that. And a fact is that using America for US is totally incorrect. You already have the United States.
No need to put any rules for languages. You have been trying for too long to disguise your loss in this argument through your version to argue about the meaning of words. America means the continent, anything after that is derived from the original meaning that it was given. The soccer name is America, but even though is naming a soccer team, the name came originally from the continent. Women use the name as well and they also took it from the original continent's name. USA took it from the continent and even though they want it to mean a country, it is still bears the original meaning of the continent even though the USA tried to do away with the original meaning by dividing the continent and thus America could be taken and then replaced by The Americas.
So finally David you have come to agree on what I have been saying all along. That America is the continent's name, that USA took the name for itself, and that due to the USA's influence and force, the name has been accepted to mean the country of the U.S. That the meaning and use of the name "America" has been manipulated by the USA so that the whole world accepts it as only the name for the USA. By way of pushing it, through the repetition, the imposing, and various other ways the USA has been successful on spreading this to the world. It is all a strategy. This though, does not make it correct or right. It only shows that the imperialism of the USA has not diminished but has grown even more.
And they keep mostly silent unhappy neighbors (some hypocrite), that will not give the current giant a hand when it will really need it.
In the end, todo se paga en esta vida y si no, en la otra vida... Agreed, also the US got away from everything through history, they always get away. Isn't Us the country that sign "to stop making nuclear weapons" but continues making them? The answer is yes.
What's more populated Anglo America or Latin America?
What percentage of Anglo-Americans speak English? What percentage of Latin Americans speak English?
Latin America is more populated
400 million people have Spanish as their mother tongue, and 247 million have English as their mother tongue in the continent.
I know it’s more populated. I also know that this fact doesn’t mean that some Latin Americans get to determine how everyone uses ‘America’ and ‘American’. Some Latin Americans use those words in the way that you don’t like. You don’t speak for all of them. You don’t control them or anyone else. Deal with it.
Well, they do. Latin Americans decide how they use America and Americans. But they are not going to be pushing an agenda like the U.S. has been to make the name to be only for the USA. The USA is the one pushing the whole world in how to determine their use of the name "America" and "Americans". And they shouldn't be doing that. The sad part of this issue is that the USA has gotten away with everything they have set to do with force and by force. You might admire the USA for being a bully to the rest of the Latin American countries but Latin Americans don't think the way you do. In the end, todo se paga en esta vida y si no, en la otra vida.
Laura, it doesn’t matter that Latin America is more populated. What does that have to do with the meanings of words? It’s influence that really matters. Not population. Accept reality and move on. Stop pretending.
So there are much more Americans in Latin America + (Anglo America minus United States). My God! America is huge.
Then most of the Americans in the world are not from the states. Thank you dears
Thanks for sharing basic facts that nobody is disputing.
Agree with Laura. From Americans for America. Nothing to do with languages or who streams more. It's all about consideration and respect, even when the offended stay quiet.
But why is Europe and Asia a continent but not Central America… Ah, right! because culturally and historically reasons. Same with America it has a cultural and historically reason to be only America. Indeed after the end of World War II, US still uses the 6 continent model, but because they need attention they start separating both regions incorrectly labeling as “continents” and even that is bad because they consider Trinidad and Tobago as North even thought is clearly in the South region. And why is that Central and the C. Sea can´t be a continent, they clearly have their own tectonic plate, all of this because they have the excuse of saying that their seven model is scientifically accurate even though continents and tectonic plates are different things and continents are only there because of historically,cultural and political reasons no need to bring the tectonic plates. If they want to talk about tectonic plates, then talk about it but is not the same as a continent.
(continuation) Panama Canal doesn’t even divide the continent it is only as much in a point 30 meters deep, there is obvious land, search side view of. Now with the Brits calling the colonies Americans, it is because when they saw the map the continent was clearly named America, so logically the colonies without name were American because they where in America. That is why it has the name means federal United States in the and of the continent of America because it is true that they were the first States that were "united" in America. If their name would make sense is United States of the Americas or United States in Middle North America.
Why do you think is the only country that swings with its name, I mean the only one. It is ridiculous the time that people often swing between US and America to refer to the country and in articles, news, YouTube, movies and series is a mess. Obviously there more uses US part and in things for example the domain .us or MADE IN U.S.A., and nationality in official documents is not American but USA. The rest of the countries can brag being whatever they want. Not They.
(continuation) They think everyone speaks English and that every country see through the same eye of US and that everyone should follow their ideology, there is this mindset that because what US says and does it should be right and is standard.
Andrea, once again, i agree with you. The British used to say that there were going to "America", but way back then they were coming to the continent due to the colonies being only colonies in the continent. In the other hand, Europeans were also saying "going to America" when they were going to either south America or Central America. People in the USA don't get to read this part of the history. Lots of Europeans landed in the south part of America the continent and they still called it "America". So, America is the continent where the United Colonies and later changed to United States where in America and of America being the first sovereign and free colonies who gain independence from European countries. Where else is the name going to come from but if it is not from the continent?
Andrea, you certainly have some of the concerns I have. Long ago in this forum even before it was a forum like what is today, many were offering the idea that two Americas is divided due to tectonic plates. But as you have said, it is true, there are different tectonic plates for the 3 subregions of America, South, Central and North even the Caribbean. My view is not that the USA needs attention, which it might be true, but that they needed to keep the name of the continent for the country so they divided the continent to take its name. Also,the USA is not even uniform when they call Central America as part of North America but yet they don't when immigrants come from Central America. North America is not Central America. Mexico, Canada and USA are part of N.A.
Dividing 1 continent into 2 continents still won’t mean anything different. 2 or more Americas still share 1 matching word in each of their names, which is America! It means nothing even when North America and South America are separated.
Like you said Mrs. Anonymous, North America isn’t Central America but Central America itself is apart of North America. Central Americans are of course North Americans (at least in my opinion) whether they like it or not.
American Flags... for Kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDL25BXdQxM
Sadly isn´t in English, for United Statians to watch.
I don't speak Spanish, but I can still understand what country a flag is from by looking at the word(s)
HyphenSt1 I can answer your question. On NPR they talked about using America as a name for USA. A historian said America really started being used for USA at the end of the 1800’s. USA was expanding overseas. They took Hawaii. They finished the Spanish empire by taking Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and a few other Spanish places. I was interested because my family is from Philippines. Because these places were not connected to USA and very few white Americans lived there USA did not originally plan to make them states. They wanted a different name to use for the expanding USA so they used America. Politicians and newspapers began using it a lot so the Americans did too. The historian said that it was rare for Americans to use America for USA before then. The English used America for USA a lot but not Americans. It is interesting history. I can not remember the name of the historian or the book he wrote. Sorry but I hope this information helps you.
Thank you Jenni for your input. It could have been that way you wrote how the U.S. took the name of the continent for itself. I doesn't have any sense to do it just for those reasons though. However the U.S. did it is confusing but that it did take the name of the continent it did and without asking the rest of the American countries in the continent.
I am American and I do not call the US like that.
a typical United Statian in your story.
The US invents history and tries to justify what is known as wrong. Don't care!
Keep on with movies, Wikipedia, literature and translations... all biased.
Do you think the historian is lying? If you do do you have proof? Do you really believe that a professional historian would lie on the radio and risk his reputation? There has to be something or some things that caused Americans to call their country as America. Right??? Will you accept any explanation? Or because you don’t like it you will just say that it is all lies? That is a very weird way to see things.
You're talking about me. I am American.
"A historian said" That's classic fable. You can also make a movie about it. Many historians can tell you a lot about going to the Moon. Most will coincide on many aspects. United Statians invent what they want.
Whatever they invent. There is no justification to be offensive with other countries.
No historians ever tell the truth? There has to be an answer to when and why Americans started calling their country America. Right??? Anyways it was common for the English to call USA America before the Americans did.
Americans and many other peoples call USA America so there has to be a history of this. You obviously think its wrong to call USA America so then there is a history of this wrong practice as you see it. Calling USA America exists so it has to have a history even if you thinks its wrong to call it like that and even if you don’t like it. You are not thinking right.
Agree with you Jenni. I have been asking if anyone knows when did the U.S. began calling itself "America" and why? At least you gave us an explanation of some sort. In my opinion, it is a little bogus though, but keep them coming we need to solve this puzzle!
Mrs. A, He gave many good examples. He’s an academic historian who works at a major university. He knows much more about it than all of us together. He said that a USA president around that time started calling the USA America all the time in speeches. In a short time he did this in big presidential speeches more than all the other presidents before him ever had done. He knows this because the speeches are part of the historical record and he has read them. Why don’t you believe it? Do you know more about it than an expert historian who has passed his life researching these things?
Jeni, I believe it. I still remember speeches where the president would say United States instead of America. But i mostly remember when all NEWS MEDIA used to say only United States or U.S. when talking about the this nation. But as you say, it kind of started to change and little by little the word "America" got stuck. Leaders of this nation know that by repeating a word for many many times it will be stuck with people's minds and then it will be accepted as truth. I thought that this is what the USA did so that the whole world begins calling the U.S. and accepted only as "America". In today's society the same tactic of repeating something is really catching up with people and they now believe things that might not be all true but they believe it due to the repetition of the concept or word by news or politicians or even professors many many times over and over.
This repetition to make people believe it is true...might be called conditioning
These days semantics and syntax seem as important as ever, and one thing i don't hear talked about enough is: When did "America" become synonymous with "The United States"..?
I already know from that simple question, people will think i'm splitting hairs, BUT i do think that words are the tools with which we think, and when we equate The United States with AMERICA, it seems to imply an innate priority and importance over Canada for instance.. Oh and damn, Mexico also kinda *sorta* counts, i suppose..