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)
“The official name of Mexico is … Mexico....”
¡Loquísimo!
It is very very funny to see that someone made an excerpt from a text that is CRITICAL with the use of the word "americano" as a demonym for the United States, and that the excerpt is the author's complaint that they do so, not a description. Obviously at the time this text was written, he was suffering because that -apparently- was happening in his country (Mexico) at the time of writing, but that has not happened for a long time, I am from Argentina (Spanish speaking country) and it is very difficult to find someone who calls americanos to the citizens of the United States, except the elderly. We all call them estadounidenses!!!
But it was very very funny to see someone try such a dumb and silly resource!
https://www.fondodeculturaeconomica.com/obra/suma/r1/buscar.asp?word2=americano
Says the payaso who doesn’t know what ‘official’ means, and who doesn’t know what the official name of Mexico is.
¡¡Uuuuhh!! ¡¡Este ta re loco!! ¡loquísimo!
LOL. Dumbass.
Even the main dictionary of the English language, the Merriam-Webster, recognizes the continental meaning (relative to the America continent or The Americas) of the word "American" above that of demonym for The United States of America.
"'American' noun
Definition of American (Entry 1 of 2)
1: an American Indian of North America or South America
2: a native or inhabitant of North America or South America
3: a native or inhabitant of the U.S. : a U.S. citizen
4: AMERICAN ENGLISH
'American' adjective
Definition of American (Entry 2 of 2)
1: of or relating to America
American people
2: of or relating to the U.S. or its possessions or original territory
//American soldiers
//American embassies
//American states
//American culture"
“...the main dictionary of the English language...”
If any dictionary is the main dictionary of the English language, it’s definitely the Oxford English Dictionary. It is the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary to ever exist in the world.
It is a fact that the most common meaning of ‘America’ and ‘American’ in English are in reference to the USA and people or things that are related to the USA. The order of the definitions in a dictionary doesn’t change this.
The United States is now trying to bribe American countries on rejecting Huawei!!!
Now who does something? As usual...
They should go to jail. Ohh no, hold on, their are the cops!
Jesse Ventura, governor of Minnesota, US: "My fellow United Statians... I like to refer to us as United Statians. We always use the term Americans, but when you think about it there's North America, South America, Central America -I've always referred to myself as a United Statian" (interview by Misheharu Dawkins and Jonathan Miller in The Minneapolis Observer).
Good for him. To each, his own.
God bless Mr. Ventura
Good and honest US citizen
El problema de los EUA es no haber escogido un nombre propio, pues su nombre alude a un tipo de organización política localizada en un continente.
Anyway Mauricio I would not criticize that, because after all there are other countries with names with characteristics like this, for example Netherlands (ex Holland in Spanish), which in its original language means "inferior lands or countries" and which is now in Spanish we must call it "Paises Bajos". Or Germany which is actually called Deustchland and which means "country of the people".
But that we never criticize that they have names like that because we don't know those meanings, unlike with the United States that we do.
¡Y te encontré en otro lado! ¡Jajaja! https://elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/29/defensor_del_lector/1354180510_135418.html
De todas maneras yo pienso que no debe molestarnos que EN EL INGLÉS la palabra "American" sea gentilicio de Los Estados Unidos de América, simplemente ¡porque es una palabra de otro idioma! ¡je! no es la palabra "americano" del castellano (ni del francés, italiano, o el portugués, donde también estan empezando a utilizarse equivalentes a "estadounidense") es lo que en lingüística es llamado un "falso cognado", los cognados son las palabras de distintos idiomas que se parecen fonéticamente (y en su escritura claro) y significan lo mismo, pero ¿porque "falso" en este caso? porque también existen las que se parecen pero que por su evolución no significan lo mismo.
Por ejemplo "assist" no significa asistir, significa ayudar; "exit" no significa éxito, significa salida; "actually" no significa actualidad o actualmente, significa "en realidad"; y la que me parece la mejor!, "deception" no significa decepción significa engaño!
No digo que no haya motivos geopolíticos influyendo en esto pero eso es la fuente de este falso cognado en particular, la de los otros es otra, pero la realidad -lingüística- es que son dos palabras con significados distintos de dos idiomas diferentes. ¡American no significa americano!
Y’all have never much cared for facts. Your fantasies are much more comforting.
Whatever you need to tell yourselves in order to get through the day, I guess.
“Cada día es más frecuente, más natural que, hablando en español, nos refiramos a los americanos con el mismo sentido que a esta voz se da en los Estados Unidos.”
“Este uso no sólo está muy extendido entre hispanohablantes (ya no se diga en el inglés, lengua en la que es gentilicio exclusivo), sino que además su empleo viene dándose de muchos años atrás. Nunca imaginé sin embargo que hubiera pruebas de que esto ocurrió por primera vez, en lengua española, en el siglo XVIII. ...[E]n 1783, el patriota venezolano Francisco de Miranda emplea americano con el sentido de 'perteneciente o relativo a los Estados Unidos de América, o natural de ellos'.”
https://www.fondodeculturaeconomica.com/obra/suma/r1/buscar.asp?word2=americano
“Yo sé que en castellano utilizamos el término americano para referirnos a las personas estadounidenses....”
“De todas maneras en España lamentablemente tambien se usan las palabras americano y norte-americano cuando lo que se quiere decir es estadounidense....”
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/american-north-american.1554864/
“¡Bravo! Finalmente parece que El País nos está poniendo atención a sus lectores americanos, a quienes nos incomoda profundamente que los reporteros y articulistas de este diario, se refieran a Estados Unidos de América simplemente como América.”
“...los reporteros y articulistas...se refieran a Estados Unidos de América simplemente como América.”
https://elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/29/defensor_del_lector/1354180510_135418.html