Other meaning for USA people
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it was difficult writing it too...
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Yeah thanks. I said pseudo because I do t really know the meaning of these words apart from vic3, nor do I know of anyone from the americas
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other people in the world absolutely were using the term American to refer to citizens of the US before the 1900s.
I mean, a few, I imagine. There's always been people saying shit wrong. Would help your case if you actually had a source and not just a vibe to refute an evidence based position.
By population, however, most of the world isn't the anglosphere. Spanish speakers, which is most of America, by and large call you "Estadunidenses" whenever it's not "gringo". A good chunk of us also speak English and object to gringos colonizing "america" much like Indonesians or Indians or Malaysians probably would have if Japan decided it was "Asia".
You might not have decided that we speak English, but the same government that made it a necessity for us in the global south to learn the language is the one that decided to steal that term. Language matters.
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Given that you're the native, you should gently explain to the colonial that they are the ones who are wrong.
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Eh, NY has the Yankees sports team but they are not part of New England and I'd say a good portion of the country would say NY has no Yankees in it besides the team.
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Sounds like that fight was lost 100 years ago.
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Thing is, it's "United States of America", much like "United States of Mexico" and, before 1968, "United States of Brazil". So when they call themselves americans, they're technically correct.
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Call them murican. Everyone gets it, even the usa-ians
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i just call them USian when i don't care to be a bit cheeky.
like you call yourself after the entire continent, am i supposed to take it seriously?
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That's the reason I didn't say New England.
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Ya tu sabé
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Not really. Most americans aren't native english speakers, and still consider themselves americans. They don't roll over and let the US coopt that term.
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Being a native from The South, "Yankee" to me means anybody from the area above the Mason Dixon line. Full disclosure, I'm not proud to be from The South. However, I do find many Yankees to be at least a little bit rude by my standards. So, the designation stands in my head.
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I think you should reread what I said, I don't think your response makes sense vs my statement.
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The term Yankee includes more than New England. That's why I didn't use the term New England while you did.
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Oh, I have sources. I'm just not rounding them up for this shit. After the assholery I've already dealt with, I'm done. I didn't give much of a fuck about dessalines' tangent to begin with, but was willing to engage a little with it just because of who it was.
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We say "USA" for the country and "US-American" for the people
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You're god damn right we do.
The shithead in golf shorts in line ahead of you at Publix bitching out the cashier for not thanking him for letting her help him? The one who left where he's from because he didn't like it there and then wants here to be like where he's from? That's a Yankee, quite likely a halfback.
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Its my understanding that in Spanish, "American" refers to anyone from the Americas. In some languages/countries, the Americas are taught as 1 continent (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and America), so a person from any country in the Americas would be called "American".
In most English speaking countries, we are taught that there are 7 continents, and north and south America are separate continents. In that context, you wouldn't really use a term to refer to people from both continents. It's similar to how, as a spaniard, I could not call you "eurasian", i would just say "european". In English, you would then have to refer to people as either "north american" or "south american".
In practice, we do refer to people from south America as "south american", but north america usually gets divided into "central american" and "caribbean", which only leaves the US, Canada, and Mexico.
People from Mexico and Canada have obvious demonyms, while the USA does not. "Gringo" also applies to Canadians (and it's specifically referring to non-spanish speaking european americans), so it doesn't really work as a demonym. "Yankee" doesn't really work, either, because it only applies to a subset of people from the US, so it's similar to calling everyone from Great Britain "English".
I haven't met any primarily English speaking residents of the americas with any problem with people from the US being called "american".
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Username checks out lol
