Using the Word "American"

[DoPo]

Yes, it doesn't make sense. Do Mexicans/Canadians/Brazilians/etc. want to be called "Americans"? I wouldn't like it if I was called "Eurapean" because 1. it sounds stupid 2. completely obliterates all the differences between Eurapean countries. Calling me "Eurapean" would be a (very) minor insult. It sounds like the other party thinks I have the Eiffel Tower in my back yard, Big Ben down the street, the Coliseum next to it and I'm happily chatting in German, French, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Norwegian with all my neighbours on my daily basis. For the same reason, I cannot understand how somebody could refer to all people in two continents as "American". It makes way more sense to use the word to refer to the people who live in the same country and that country has "America" in its name.

 

[StarCecil]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word?

People get upset about that? I have genuinely never come across this!

I was watching movie trailers on Youtube (what else is it for?) and while watching two documentary trailers for movies having to do with the Iraq/Afghan wars I see the usual political debate in the comments coupled with someone bitching about how the USA takes the word "American" when there are two continents and multiple countries in the Americas.

I've also seen, on this site and elsewhere, people insist on using the phrase "USican" or "USian" and even "USAers".

 

[MetalMagpie]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word?

People get upset about that? I have genuinely never come across this!

I was watching movie trailers on Youtube (what else is it for?) and while watching two documentary trailers for movies having to do with the Iraq/Afghan wars I see the usual political debate in the comments coupled with someone bitching about how the USA takes the word "American" when there are two continents and multiple countries in the Americas.

I've also seen, on this site and elsewhere, people insist on using the phrase "USican" or "USian" and even "USAers".

How weird.

I confess, in real life I tend to use "yanks" for people from the USA and "North Americans" for people from the entire continent. Online I stick to "Americans" and "people from North America" respectively to avoid offence. I didn't realise there was a more "Politically Correct" term than that!

 

[StarCecil]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word?

People get upset about that? I have genuinely never come across this!

I was watching movie trailers on Youtube (what else is it for?) and while watching two documentary trailers for movies having to do with the Iraq/Afghan wars I see the usual political debate in the comments coupled with someone bitching about how the USA takes the word "American" when there are two continents and multiple countries in the Americas.

I've also seen, on this site and elsewhere, people insist on using the phrase "USican" or "USian" and even "USAers".

How weird.

I confess, in real life I tend to use "yanks" for people from the USA and "North Americans" for people from the entire continent. Online I stick to "Americans" and "people from North America" respectively to avoid offence. I didn't realise there was a more "Politically Correct" term than that!

I don't think there's anyone that would mind the word "Yanks" (that's a lie, even in the US people argue over which part of the US is really "Yankee"), and I even use shorthand for other countries' citizens; Russkies, Brits, Canooks, Aussies, etc.

 

[Griffolion]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?

I personally have never gotten upset, and neither have I ever met anyone who has. I'm a little confused as to the context of what you're saying.

 

[2fish]

Americans got the title during one of the wars with you native peoples. I don't remember which one of you had the title and the deed to that name in their pocket but after invading and killing enough natives that we got to our current size and shape we found out we have the title to that name and went with it.

Or did we buy it in one of the land purchases? History is only so important.

Some countries are just hard to rebrand in your native language. Australia=Australian Serbia=Serbian Guatemala = Guatemalaian? Guatemalenese? USA falls into the too much work to rebrand camp.



Can?t see Mexicans or Canadians wanting the title "American" any more than Italy wants the title "European".

Spoiler: So says the internet:

Do not Doubt the Wikipedia!
1. The name of the country is United States of America. Logically, citizens of the US can be called "Americans" when referring to their nationality. There is no other country with "America" in it's name.

2. If you're referring to what continent citizens in the continental USA are from, then you would call them North Americans. Few people identify themselves with what continent they are from except Australians and some Europeans (Despite that Australia is both a country and a continent); they usually identify themselves by their country first. Therefore, few US Citizens are going to refer to themselves as "North American".
-I'll also note that within the US, people often identify themselves according to their state more so than "American" (ie. a person from Texas is a Texan).

3. The term "American" does not have one exclusive definition. It can refer to both the people in the USA and to people from the American continents. Context will clarify which. Neither is inaccurate or a slight to the other.

4. The terms "Americans" or "American colonists" were used by the British way back when the USA was only a colony of Britain. After the USA was formed, people living in this new country continued to be referred to as Americans. So American people did not choose to call themselves that. If anyone presumed that people in the territory of what is now the USA were the only "Americans," then it was the British. The term is not exclusively used by US citizens either. Many other countries refer to US Citizens as "Americans" also.

5. What other alternative is there, that both evokes the culture of the people in the USA and rolls easily off the tongue? Yankee? Not to mention, the term "American" has a long history in being associated with US citizens and their culture, and to ignore that is arrogant. Basically, you'd be asking a whole nation to re-write its identity.

 

[StarCecil]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?

I personally have never gotten upset, and neither have I ever met anyone who has. I'm a little confused as to the context of what you're saying.

I was watching movie trailers on Youtube (what else is it for?) and while watching two documentary trailers for movies having to do with the Iraq/Afghan wars I see the usual political debate in the comments coupled with someone bitching about how the USA takes the word "American" when there are two continents and multiple countries in the Americas.

I've also seen, on this site and elsewhere, people insist on using the phrase "USican" or "USian" and even "USAers".

 

[Griffolion]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?

I personally have never gotten upset, and neither have I ever met anyone who has. I'm a little confused as to the context of what you're saying.

I was watching movie trailers on Youtube (what else is it for?) and while watching two documentary trailers for movies having to do with the Iraq/Afghan wars I see the usual political debate in the comments coupled with someone bitching about how the USA takes the word "American" when there are two continents and multiple countries in the Americas.

I've also seen, on this site and elsewhere, people insist on using the phrase "USican" or "USian" and even "USAers".

Oh I see. So it's to do with the South American peoples not liking the people of the US taking the blanket term "American". Can't say I've ever given it much thought, but who was it that "discovered" the south America's and named them such?

 

[StarCecil]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?

I personally have never gotten upset, and neither have I ever met anyone who has. I'm a little confused as to the context of what you're saying.

I was watching movie trailers on Youtube (what else is it for?) and while watching two documentary trailers for movies having to do with the Iraq/Afghan wars I see the usual political debate in the comments coupled with someone bitching about how the USA takes the word "American" when there are two continents and multiple countries in the Americas.

I've also seen, on this site and elsewhere, people insist on using the phrase "USican" or "USian" and even "USAers".

Oh I see. So it's to do with the South American peoples not liking the people of the US taking the blanket term "American". Can't say I've ever given it much thought, but who was it that "discovered" the south America's and named them such?

Well, I know that the Americas are named after Amerigo Vespucci but I can't tell you much else. I can also tell you the first use of the word "American" was in 1648's "The English-American: A New Survey of the West Indies" by Thomas Gage. Does that help?

 

[Woodsey]

I've never seen someone get upset over that.

Stop calling us all Europeans and we'll stop calling you all American

Well, where do you live?

 

[DJjaffacake]

I wish more people would use 'american' when referring to the language rather than 'english' but other than that i have no problem with it. If i lived in south America and someone called me American i would certainly get hostile though...

Why would the language be referred to as american. Portuguese isn't called Brazilian, Spanish isn't called Mexican or Argentine or whatever.

 

[Griffolion]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?

I personally have never gotten upset, and neither have I ever met anyone who has. I'm a little confused as to the context of what you're saying.

I was watching movie trailers on Youtube (what else is it for?) and while watching two documentary trailers for movies having to do with the Iraq/Afghan wars I see the usual political debate in the comments coupled with someone bitching about how the USA takes the word "American" when there are two continents and multiple countries in the Americas.

I've also seen, on this site and elsewhere, people insist on using the phrase "USican" or "USian" and even "USAers".

Oh I see. So it's to do with the South American peoples not liking the people of the US taking the blanket term "American". Can't say I've ever given it much thought, but who was it that "discovered" the south America's and named them such?

Well, I know that the Americas are named after Amerigo Vespucci but I can't tell you much else. I can also tell you the first use of the word "American" was in 1648's "The English-American: A New Survey of the West Indies" by Thomas Gage. Does that help?

Yeah, thanks. I don't know what to say, really. All I can say is, "it's just one of those things".

 

[Arsen]

I love those people who flip out over it's usage not including the historical category of "The Americas". Contrary to their beliefs, it DOES mean "The United States". We're the powerhouse. Therefore it becomes synonymous.

The rest should merely be called "The Americas" if we want to go with the historical, broadening category.

 

[Lerasai]

The way I see it, American and North American and South American are all completely different terms. Yeah, it can be confusing and the USA is notoriously self-centered, but our country's name is extremely clumsy language-wise, so we really have no choice but to shorten it to America when no other word is appropriate. What else can we call ourselves? It's not our fault our founders were terrible at coming up with original names. Our states' names are mostly taken from other places, too. We're a Frankenstein's monster of a country.

So, yeah, we jacked the name like total jerks. We're like that annoying younger sibling that hogs all of the candy that you were supposed to share. But, you gotta ask yourself, do you honestly want that candy back now that it's got all of our gross slobber all over it?

 

[Pyro Paul]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?

Because it is the Internet and People get pissy over everything on the internet.

The word American refers to natives of the United States of America first and foremost. In other cultures it is commonly used as an identity marker or a duragtory slur. But the same can be said of almost every single countries name as it is used to describe a rather broadly held sterotype.

People have been trying to Detach the US from its American connotation because 'the Americas' is effectively all major land mass in the western hemisphere, and those that live there are technically 'American', synonomous to European, Asian, or African being used as broad terms to describe the general location on the world an individual hails from.

However, even in this, the correct usage of the term would be 'North American' or 'South American' which would automatically clear up any conflict between talking about the USA American and the 'Americas' American...


In short.
People are trying to find new ways to insult/identify people...

Yankies, Doughboys, Brits, Limeys, Krauts, Gerrie, Charlie, Reds.
we have done it for centuries... what would stop us now?

 

[Legiondude]

Hey!, I decided to ask some friends here are the answers they gave me:
"It's because we are more American than they are and they insist on calling themselves like that because they are fucking retarded"
And
"By calling themselves America they are implying that we are less of America than they are, like saying we are a lesser nation"
My friends are Mexican too BTW, make of that what you will.

Being native to southern California and been to far flung areas such as Pennsylvania, Washington, Montana, Kentucky and having a a friend from Texas

I can say nobody(I've met) uses the word "America" with that subcontext unless they're from the DEEP South. In which case, even us [people] here in the states think they're pricks

Which is why I'm confused over all this raging

 

[TehCookie]

Stop calling us all Europeans and we'll stop calling you all American

I never understood that, could you explain why? What would you expect me to call you, expecting me to be able to guess your country is like me expecting you to guess what state I'm from (Europe may be more diverse but I'm terrible at telling races apart so I was trying to give a comparison from my point of view). I guess to me getting mad someone called you European is like getting mad someone called you western.

Or is it some sort of national pride thing?

 

[Twilight_guy]

Because people each have their own definitions of words and ideas of how they should be interpreted and no two persons' are the same. Humans tend to address difference in opinion through yelling and hostility rather then tolerance and understanding.

 

[Sparrow]

Well, this devolved into a "Fuck you, Mexico/America is better than America/Mexico!" argument pretty darn quick. More on topic, never knew people got pissed about that. I assume it's the same as people thinking Britain and England are the same thing?

Stop calling us all Europeans and we'll stop calling you all American

Also, I find myself in total agreement with this comment.

Yes, Spain and Germany are totally fucking identical. Obviously. BY THE WAY THAT WAS SARCASM.