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 (1309)
The original meaning of ‘America’ is South America. This is an obvious fact. Look at your beloved 1507 Waldseemüller map. If it is wrong for Americans to use a different meaning, then it is also wrong for everyone else to use a different meaning. If Americans are abusing the word by using it as a common name for their country, then anyone who uses the word to refer to all of the Americas is also abusing the word. Your glaring double standards are one of your many forms of BS.
Your reasoning seems to be from a 3 year old. There is history in between and so you should read the history before you write this immature conclusions.
Why do you call the Americas ‘America’ when you “should” call it Parias and America?
If you have the balls or ovaries to answer this question honestly, it will completely destroy your false narrative that frames everything that you post on this site. That is why you will not answer this question honestly. You don’t want facts, you want to pretend. You NEED to pretend.
this has already been answered. You seem to get stuck in nonsense. Why is the USA using the word "America" rather than Parias? you answer that...!
Roda, you got nothing!
so according to you, the USA stole the name "America" from the south of the continent???
If the Americans “stole” the name, then so did anyone living in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean who refers to their continent as America, North America, or Central America.
Their continent or region, that is.
Are you here to discuss why the USA is using the name America, which is rightly the continent's name, or are you here to deviate from the issue at hand so that you can claim you won some unrelated points about names used before on land that was yet to be discovered/mapped? Let me make it clear..."THIS IS NOT A RACE" noone is trying to win anything! This should only be a discussion on the issue of the name "America" and it should be a collegial discussion.
that was meant for you since you are the one trying to fight the stupid argument that Parias should be the USA and the rest is just America. Listen to your own arguments, you are not making any sense!!!
Again, your reading comprehension is *****. I am not arguing what you claim.
David wrote: "Why do you call the Americas ‘America’ when you “should” call it Parias and America?"... Don't deny it unless someone else is writing for you under your name. You keep touching the same stupid argument about Parias. Don't deny it!
Deny what?
Still nothing? I am shocked.
So, South America is America and North America is Parias. Hence, we have "United States of Parias". What do you prefer to be called? Pariasinian? Parian? Please, remember that Parisian is already in use.
Of course we will stick with the names we already have. Why would it be otherwise?
And you can keep using the name ‘America’ for all of the Americas, even though that isn’t the original meaning. New meanings of the word have arisen over time. This is a normal part of language.
David wrote: "Mercator was the first, as far as we currently know, to record the concepts of North and South America. He did this in 1538. The Americans didn’t invent this idea. Spanish, Portuguese, and many other languages have terms or words for North and South America. Some see them as continents. Some see them as subcontinents. But the idea of dividing the Americas into smaller units did not originate after World War II as an American conspiracy to “steal” the words ‘America’ and ‘American’." We know that America the continent is subdivided into three regions; North, Central and South, as it is still called today.
only when people change their meanings words change but only then. Thus, perhaps the USA wanted to change the meaning of America it was when the continent was divided into two so that the name America could be freed to use. However, as you know, the word America did not change for millions of other people and has kept its original meaning which is the name of the continent.
As you know, its original meaning is South America. Look at your beloved 1507 Waldseemüller map.
Still waiting.
You had nothing. You have nothing. You will forever continue to have nothing.
Well, you do have your downvotes. I will give you that. But you don’t have much of anything else.
It was not until Mercator’s world map of 1538 that the name ‘America’ was first applied to North America.
The map is notable for a new interpretation of the name "America". As far as it is known, the new continent was named "America" by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507, who applied the name only to the southern continent.
This viewpoint was common over the years. However, Mercator viewed the landmass discovered by Columbus as a single part of the world comprising both continents and, in 1538, he signed on the map, mentioned above, accordingly, 'America. The northern part' and 'America. The southern part'.
http://expositions.nlr.ru/eng/map_merkator/2.php
Published in 1538, the Orbis Imago, is the first map of the world drawn up by Gerard Mercator. It is his second published map. It is not completely original: Mercator copied the Nova et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio by Orontius Finaeus from 1531, but made a few significant changes. For example, ‘America’ was used to refer to both North and South America for the first time, with both parts of the New World joined together as one continent. Mercator also separated Asia and North America.
http://bc.library.uu.nl/unusual-view-fairly-unknown-world.html
This is also the first map to apply the name America to the North American continent as well as to South America and to differentiate North and South America as separate continents. In using the term “America” in this way, Mercator shares responsibility with Martin Waldseemüller for naming the Western Hemisphere.
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/854/
“The name America, such a natural poetic counterpart to Asia, Africa and Europa, had filled a vacuum, and there was no going back, especially not after the young Gerardus Mercator, destined to become the century's most influential cartographer, decided that the whole of the New World, not just its southern part, should be so labeled. The two names he put on his 1538 world map are the ones we've used ever since: North America and South America.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-waldseemuller-map-charting-the-new-world-148815355/
The continent to the left side of Asia is not spelled ‘Europa’ with an ‘a’ at the end. It’s actually spelled with an ‘e’ at the end, such as ‘Europe’! Please be sure to correct your grammar next time! I don’t remember the last time Europe has been written as Europa before.
‘America’, when it was first used in 1507 on the Waldseemüller map, referred only to South America, not to both South America and North America. North America was labeled as ‘Parias’.
This is a highly detailed scan of the Waldseemüller map of 1507:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3200.ct000725C/
This scan clearly shows that ‘America’ labels only South America. It clearly shows that ‘Parias’ is used to label North America.
“North America is called ‘Parias’ – ‘America’ is used to label the South American coast all the way down to the present-day port of Cananéia, Brazil.”
https://bit.ly/2YTii9z
“Waldseemüller’s America actually identified what is today South America. “Parias” is the name Waldseemüller identified with what is today North America.”
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/apr25/america-beautiful/
How did the name "America" travel north? As they discovered lands and maps got revised, they included the north to be part of the entire American continent or new world. America, same as other continents, Europe, Asia etc, has a north, south and central. When people said south, they meant south of the continent of America, when they said north, they meant north of the continent of America. You and others, especially those who speak English, can not grasp this concept and began misusing the word and spreading the error universally by dividing the continent into two, so that the name America by itself would no longer be a conflict. That explains why the name America has been taught as if it is only the USA in certain countries.
So very truly, painfully, remarkably dumber than dirt.
Mercator was the first, as far as we currently know, to record the concepts of North and South America. He did this in 1538. The Americans didn’t invent this idea. Spanish, Portuguese, and many other languages have terms or words for North and South America. Some see them as continents. Some see them as subcontinents. But the idea of dividing the Americas into smaller units did not originate after World War II as an American conspiracy to “steal” the words ‘America’ and ‘American’.
“The name for the northern land mass, Parias, is derived from a passage in the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci....”
“Parias was described by Waldseemüller's follower, Johannes Schöner as: "The island of Parias, which is not a part or portion of the foregoing [America] but a large, special part of the fourth part of the world", indicating uncertainty as to its situation.”
“PARIAS and AMERICA, corresponding to North and South America, are separated by a strait in the region of the present Panama on the main map but on the miniature map inset into the upper-mid part of the main map the isthmus joining the two is unbroken, apparently demonstrating Waldseemüller's willingness to represent alternative solutions to a question yet unanswered.”
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Waldseemüller_map
The continent supports Spanish claims to the region by flying the flag of Castile, but is not given the name of America. Instead, in its southern regions, it is named ‘Parias’ in capital letters. So the great birth certificate of America actually calls North America ‘Parias’, a word taken from Vespucci’s account of his meeting with the local inhabitants who used it to designate their homeland.
The map reserves the name ‘America’ to describe the southern land mass, and is placed in the location of modern-day Brazil.”
From: A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Brotton; p. 174
Then why are you calling it "North America" when you should be calling it "Parias"?
Why “should” I call it Parias? What rule dictates that I “should” call it Parias? Why do you call the Americas ‘America’ when you “should” call it Parias and America?