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 (1430)
Using ‘America’ to refer to the Americas is not the original meaning of the word. Using ‘America’ to refer to the USA is not the original meaning of the word. How is one right and the other wrong? How is one an abuse of the word while the other is not?
Well, an example, let's say America represents a cup and the USA represents one of the ice inside the cup. So the ice is in the cup, but not the cup. USA is in America, but not America. The rest of the ice are the other countries in the cup, thus America.
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.