How do you call someone born in the US besides "American"?

valveman@lemmy.eco.br to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 194 points –

Well, everybody born in the american continent is technically "american" too, including Central and South America. Is there a specific term in english for these people?

Edit: Thanks for all your answers, especially the wholesome ones and those patient enough to explain it thoroughly. Since we (South Americans) and you (North Americans) use different models/conventions of continent boundaries, it makes sense for you to go by "Americans", while it doesn't for us.

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There's not a clear and conscience alternative to "American." If you're trying to differentiate us from other people from the Americas you'd just say US Citizen. And while yes the entirety of this hemisphere is some variation of America be it North, Central, or South the other countries here have distinct names and we really don't.

At the risk of sounding like a typical US asshole, here goes nothing. This is how I've explained it to friends from Europe and it seemed to help.

If Brazil had decided to go by the name "United States of Brazil" we would still call them Brazilians because there is another country with the title "United States" that also exists. Similar to how we call people from the Peoples Republic of China, Chinese. We don't call them "People's Republicans" because that's a title not a unique identifier or name. What if that same country decided to go by the name the Peoples Republic of Asia instead, would we call them Peoples Republicans or would we call them Asians?

The title "United States" is telling you that this area is united together and the borders represent states, not country's. "America" tells you where those united states are, the continent of America. The term "American" is generalized and honestly doesn't accurately represent the vast cultural differences within the United States. The states often have their own rights and laws separate from the US government and also unique cultures. Ideally we would be called by our states name for its citizens like Californian or New Yorker, for example. Similar to how you would refer to people from Europe as European unless you wanted to be specific to Italy, then you'd say Italian. But sometimes you need a general term, hence "American."

All that being said, it is problematic and a massive reminder of this country's bloodthirsty and genocidal colonization of a large part of North America. Looking at the country's past shows that they were very much trying to also get central and south America as part of the United States. What better way to propagandize and make it look like they had every right to the rest of the Americas than to make it appear as though this country or that country already was America and therefore should be part of these United States? But however problematic it is this is the name we have now, for better or worse.

As an addendum of sorts. We Indigenous Americans would often much rather be called by the names of our sovereign Nations yet everyone calls us Native American. Why is that? Food for thought that might help with understanding the problematic struggle we have here. It's not simply us as citizens that perpetuate the issue, it's a global colonization effort whether the others realize they are participating or not. (Spoiler: they realize)

tldr: because colonization + United States is a title not a name

First off, thank you for your great response.

And yeah, I kinda get that "United States" is just a title, but in my native language (portuguese) we have a specific word for americans: "estadunidense", which basically means "person born in the USA"

I was just wondering if there was a similar word in english that could be used specifically to these people, just like we have in portuguese. But again, thanks for your answer.

Also, fun fact: Brazil was actually called "United States of Brazil" for a short period, and our flag looked like a copy of yours, but in yellow and green. But then our king (thankfully) decided to go just by "Brazil"

That's so interesting! I didn't know that Brazil was also a "United States."

I wish that there was a name for US Citizens in the same way but with English being such a shit show combination of too many different languages, I don't know if that'll be possible. The only way I see it happening is if the US just "adopts" a word from someone else's culture, that's usually how English gets a new word or term.

The official name of Mexico is United Mexican States.

I didn't know that Brazil was also a "United States."

They're not; they were using that as an example. They're actually officially called the Federative Republic of Brazil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil?wprov=sfla1).

 

Edit: They used to be, though. See below comments.

Yes, we used to be.

Source: I'm Brazilian

Huh... I stand corrected.

Sorry about that. 👍

No problem bro, most people here don't know that because it lasted for about 4 days or so. Our first president liked our flag and national anthem from the imperial era, so he said it was bullshit to change them. That's why this "Republic of the United States of Brazil" didn't catch on (thankfully), and got forgotten.

One way around it is just to say "I'm from the US". I know it's not quite what you asked but based on what everyone else has said about why we're simply "Americans" then I suggest this as an alternative. Also like they said, referring to yourself by state of residence works too, for instance "Texan" or "Californian" since they're basically just as well known as the US itself at this point.

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If Brazil had decided to go by the name "United States of Brazil" we would still call them Brazilians because there is another country with the title "United States" that also exists.

You dont have to make up an example. Mexico's real name is United states of Mexico, and we call it mexico and Mexicans.

Source: am mexican

(And I hate Americans as much as the average person)

I would argue against the annexation on central and south American and this would be purely a pedantic note.they want a hegemonic influence but not the responsibility of dominion over latin america. For instance They had backed an early coupe against mx that dethroned French backed mx emperor and conquered mx not too long after. They did not annex mexico. They backed a coupe to separate panama from its previous governing body, wrote extremely factorable terms for the canal, did not annex panama. Backed revolt against Spain in Puerto Rico and Cuba and didn't annex either. Backed militants in Nicaragua and didn't annex. Basically they want the resources but not want to build and maintain the roads, schools, police. Which is in my opinion is different than a complete land grab.

"vast cultural differences within the United States" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣😂😂

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In Australia we call them cunts.

You call everyone Cunts though.

That's if we like you, if we don't then mate, if we want to physically hurt you with a word, we call you champ.

I'm from the US. I'm familiar with the idea of "Southern Hospitality".

Or Seppos.

Or skip the rhyming slang and just say yanks. But usually not to their face, we're toi friendly for that. :P

Calling an American a yank isn't an insult to US. I know it's meant as an insult from some cultures but it's absolutely not insulting to an American lol

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I knew one that was called "Doug". I'm not sure how much of a generalisation one can make from that though, but it seemed to work for him.

That settles it. People from the unites states shall henceforth be called "Doug"

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Wait, I thought Dougs were the side characters from books who's names are never relevant.

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"American" is the official name, though throughout history attempts have been made to find alternatives. You can read more on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States

The only officially and commonly used alternative for referring to the people of the United States in English is to refer to them as citizens of that country.[18] Another alternative is US-American,[19] also spelled US American.

Several single-word English alternatives for American have been suggested over time, especially Usonian, popularized by architect Frank Lloyd Wright,[20] and the nonce term United-Statesian.[21]

Writer H. L. Mencken collected a number of proposals from between 1789 and 1939, finding terms including Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, and United Stater.[22] Names for broader categories include terms such as Western Hemispherian, New Worlder, and North Atlantican.[23][24][25]

Nevertheless, no alternative to "American" is common in English.[18]

Nonce term?? Does that mean something different where you are?

That sentence stumped me too, really weird wording. Apparently it means "rare, seldom used" in US English.

Edit: just checked Urban Dictionary and welp, I didn't foresee the British slang meaning o_O

I'm british, so you can see my confusion!

I'm American, but I understand the slang meaning of nonce, and yeah... it's a nonce term.

I’m definitely going to start using Usonian. It seems the most natural. We probably can’t use Colombian because… you know…that’s a country already haha

Probably a good idea to put some distance between the US and the tainted legacy of Christopher Columbus, too.

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Yankee (or Yank) is a colloquial term for Americans in English; cognates can be found in other languages. Within the United States, Yankee usually refers to people specifically from New England or the Northern United States, though it has been applied to Americans in general since the 18th century, especially by the British.[26] The earliest recorded use in this context is in a 1784 letter by Horatio Nelson.[26]

I might start calling Americans Yankees

You will almost certainly annoy or piss off some Southerners (Those of the United States south of the Mason-Dixon Line, that is), then.

So definitely do it.

If you call people in the Southern US a Yankee it won't end well for you.

Some British guy said something like,"I bet the yanks won't like that" (Whatever it was, I can't remember). I replied,"Hell, the confederates won't like it much either" He was very confused.

Anyone that takes offense to being called a Yank is someone that would've been happily fighting for the Confederates during the Civil War. So fuck 'em.

Not necessarily - there’s also a MLB team with this name, so folks from different regions of the US may get pissed off/confused.

It just sounds weird to me personally, but I know it’s not an uncommon term in places like the UK/EU & I don’t take offense.

Depends on where the person using the term is from I guess?

Do it, it’s probably the best option really. Feel free to call us Yanks too. Unlike the others proposed it’s one where any of us will know what you mean

And Aussies take that another step further and say "Seppo" which is short for "Septic Tank", which is rhyming slang for "Yank".

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The proper term is American.

everybody born in the american continent is technically “american” too

The implied context of your question is in English.. In the English-speaking world, there is no American continent. People from North America are North Americans; people from South America are South Americans. People from the United States of America are American. There is no ambiguity. There is also no good term to collectively describe everyone from the Americas but there’s also rarely any need to discuss that.

I consider terms such as “USonian” and whatnot to be highly offensive. Nobody should tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language just because the same word means something else in another language. It would be like telling French people they’re not allowed to call their arm a bras because it refers to an article of clothing in English. Other languages where America means something else already have their own terms for people from the US. English, however, has no real ambiguity except that caused by those trying to shame Americans for calling themselves Americans.

"highly offensive" lol wow chill out bud. It's weird but doesn't bother me at all. Let em call me whatever they want in whatever language they have.

Telling people what they're allowed to be offended by is usually a bad choice.

Let em call me whatever they want in whatever language they have.

That's not what this is about though, which is precisely the point. In other languages, "America" means something else, and they all have other terms to refer to people from the US. The whole discussion is about what Americans should be called in English.

It's ridiculous to give such weight and care to silly things like labels.

I don't care what they want to call me in English. My comment was intended to read as dismissive of the entire conversation.

In the English-speaking world, there is no American continent.

I didn't know that, thanks.

Nobody should tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language

Look man, I'm not american and I didn't ask the question to create some debate about the ethics or whatsoever. I just wanted to know if there was a specific word for that.

In the English-speaking world, there is no American continent.

I didn't know that, thanks.

Eh, I agree common and mostly unambiguous usage is that 'America' refers to USA, but even in English it feels incongruous sometimes.

Just to be clear, I didn't think that you were being offensive. It came across entirely as a good faith question from a foreigner, but it ties into (ironically arrogant) advocacy from some foreigners who call Americans arrogant for using the term American.

People from North America are North Americans; people from South America are South Americans. People from the United States of America are American. There is no ambiguity.

Thank you for eloquently responding to the pedantry underlying OP's question.

It would be like telling French people they’re not allowed to call their arm a bras because it refers to an article of clothing in English.

And yet I've seen so many Americans chastising Spanish speaking people for saying the color black in their own language.

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Yankee, or Yank.

Yankees are only people from the North East US, like New York. Calling someone from California a Yankee would be laughable.

In the US, sure.

Outside, a Yankee is a Yankee, even if they're cosplaying a ghost while standing in front of a burning cross and waving a confederate flag. We don't care enough to ask in which state they had the misfortune of being born. 🤷‍♂️

It's like calling someone in the UK English even though they live in Scotland. You sound stupid but yeah only those people care

Yeah, but British is a thing, and everyone knows about it (the British made damn well sure, back when they were the main global bully)... American, on the other hand, doesn't work, because it refers to the whole damn continent, not just the USA... so if we want to refer to the citizens of the US Yankee / Yank is about the only option we have; not the best, maybe, but probably the least worst.

In my experience living in Ireland and traveling to other English-speaking countries you're at least as likely to be called an "American" as you are "yank."

The reason why is that it dates back to the British Empire and the fact that British subjects lived in the "American" colonies for at least 200 years before they gained independence. By that time the usage in the British Empire, of referring to people from the "American" colonies as "Americans," was pretty well baked into informal English usage and it never really died out.

Linguistics doesn't tell us how language should work in a prescriptive sense, it just tells us why it works and how it's used and why every language we know of is full of logical inconsistencies, especially English.

As a Californian I will embrace any non-american who calls me Yankee assuming it's followed by some Sherman posting.

Only in the US. In the rest of the English-speaking world many people don't know or don't care about these differences and it's just a blanket term for all Americans.

How to be murdered by someone from Boston or a southerner who's still not over the civil war

Only one country on those countries has the word "America" in its name.

It's commonly understood by all but the most pedantic that "americans" refers exclusively to inhabitants of the USA.

So they should call them American Americans, or Americericans for short; like I talk about English English because calling it British English implies Scots talk the same way.

;-)

I've never had to differentiate before like I have in this conversation. I think I would say "US Americans" since it seems to adopt other languages calling us something like United Statesans without creating an odd word like Statesans.

They could call themselves "States of America"

Are you suggesting that "united states" implies something like the triple point of water?

North and South America are so big and diverse that there's really no usage for the term "American" being used to refer to everyone on both continents. US just took the term for themselves and no one really cared enough to complain

Spanish speaking nations complain. They don't mean USA when they say Americano

Holup being from Spanish America I promise you Americano does in fact mean American, despite all complaints.

What are you talking about? all my life it's been “estadounidense”. Americano was always politically charged and used by those promoting globalization.

Que chucha, acá siempre usamos estadounidense, norte americano, o derechamente gringo. Jamás he escuchado a nadie decir americano para referirse específicamente a los de EEUU.

Excepto la ropa americana, pero ese es otro contexto cultural que no tiene anda que ver con la discusión.

Jamás he escuchado a nadie decir americano para referirse específicamente a los de EEUU.

I have in Mexico. Strangely "estadounidense" is not something a Mexican would call themselves.

Language rules (in English at least) are descriptive not prescriptive. They try to explain why Americans are called Americans, not determine what they're called. They're called Americans, whether or not it's logical, or the ideal descriptor, or fits with other names, that's what they're called.

Also most English speaking countries don't have an "American" continent, they have North and South America as separate continents, so you would say someone is North or South American to refer to the continent, not just American. Similar to how some people consider Eurasia a single continent but very few people would identify as Eurasian.

When referring to the entire continent, I've heard "The Americas" in English.

Just a reminder: Central America is another division of the American continent.

Um

AKSHUALLY

It's debatable that North and South America are separate continents. I prefer the continental plate system but some countries literally teach that there is an "American" continent that includes both landmasses.

They also typically merge Europe and Asia, which is absolutely the right thing to do regardless.

The reason you have this disagreement is that there simply isn't a good, concise definition of "continent," and because at the end of the day it only matters for semantics and racism.

So the number of continents in the world is between 5 to 7, all debatably correct, depending on who you ask.

Possibly even 4 if you want to get particularly spicy and say any large, connected landmass is a single continent, merging Africa, Europe, and Asia into a single entity.

Which is also a more valid take than "Europe is its own continent because white people live there."

Edit: I forgot to mention the Indian homies are more deserving of a continent than Europe, thanks to having their own tectonic plate.

Tl;DR the world has 4-8 continents, but it is typically taught as anywhere from 5-7, it just depends on how actually consistent you want to be with your rules for what defines a continent, and 7 is just straight up the scientifically worst option unless India is recognized as a separate continent from Eurasia.

Yeah that's kinda my point haha. Continents are made up and don't mean anything. If you're going by plates then there's dozens of continents.

A US Citizen.

Not everyone who identifies as American has citizenship, and not everyone with citizenship identifies as American. It's not synonymous.

Did you even read the OP?

Yes.

"How do you call someone born in the US besides American"?

Yes, not everyone born in the US identifies as American. I've had friends who were born there while their parents were traveling and while they are technically US citizens they wouldn't consider themselves American as they've never lived there and aren't culturally American at all. I've also known people who were born outside the US and brought there at an early age who definitely consider themselves American even though their legal status is a mess. It's the only country they've ever known.

I understand what you are saying, but it doesn't relate to the question.

The question is asking what do you call someone born in the US besides "American", no matter what way you spin it, they are a US Citizen until they decide to get citizenship in another country. This is also obviously different from being born on US soil, which implies your parents were not citizens themselves.

I'm not really getting how born in the US and born on US soil have different meanings in the context of this conversation.

A completely different tangent: lots of Americans aren't born in the US. Which kinda messes up OPs question also. Like, yes, technically you can call most people born in the US a US citizen, but you can also call lots of people not born in the US that.

US residents are not Americans. They can identify all they want but it doesn't make it true.

I might relate to Americans on many things but unless I move there and become a citizen I'll never be American.

I don't disagree with your second sentence though. Considering that some US citizens inherited their citizenship from their parents but never lived there for prolonged periods of time. For them, being a US citizen is just a technicality.

A “US-American” if you need to be very clear. But most people just say “American”.

To add a bit of context, it isn't arrogance or something that drives us to use "American" as a demonym, it's just the linguistic norm. I don't find any of the other names offensive (except seppo, but that one is meant to offend me), but most of us would probably do a double take at the term "USican" or "USian." Virtually all of us would accept Yankee.

Further reading: the full name of Mexico is the United Mexican States. If we wanted to be pedantic, we could say that using the reference to the US would be ambiguous, as they too are technically a US.

Wasn't Yankee historical origin as a derogatory term?

I like to call them Muricans. Sure, it may sound super similar to "Americans", but it's different enough to sorta make things clearer.

I'm joking. This idea is horrible.

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The simple answer is really, no. Colloquially if you say "American" you're talking about someone from the USA. We'll further segregate ourselves into the States we're from, which isn't that different a distinction between "European" and "German".

I usually respond to "Hey stupid", maybe try that?

Don't actually try this.

Gringo or gabacho.

AFAIK, the word "gringo" is used by latinos to refer to anyone from other countries, not specifically US citizens. But yeah, definitely gringo

In mexico is pretty much exclusive to people from the US, don't know about the rest of the continent tho.

Honestly, Yankee is probably the best. Some southerners won’t like it, and westerners will probably be confused, but we all know it means American and it’s the only real term for one of us that doesn’t lend the question “and why do we call you this and not people from the United States of Mexico this”. Our country’s name is unfortunately extremely generic.

This is definitely not the universal term all americans would go by. Many even find it offensive.

Southerners use this term pejoratively sometimes. I wouldn't assume every person is actually cool with it.

It always annoys me to be called a yank because my family is northern but I lived in the South for a while as a kid and they weren't calling me a Yankee to be nice or fun. A lot of southerners are still butthurt about losing the US civil war and get tribalistic about it.

The sovereign people of any nation have a right to call themselves what they please. People of the US decided on 'American' long before the Internet was a thing and Latin America people got pissed off. US intervention in Latin America is a stain in history, but this is categorically dumb. US citizens call themselves Americans because it's in the name. Literally. Canadians don't call themselves Americans and never will. This is dumb argument. Respectfully.

First off, this wasn't supposed to be an argument, just a question. My native language has a specific word for them (and some other languages have too) and I got curious if english itself had such a thing.

Latin America people got pissed off

Maybe it's because people say "America" and everybody instantly thinks of the USA, even though you're just another country in the whole continent? For these people you are stealing the word "american" and changing its meaning. People from Asia have the word "asian", people in Europe got "european", people in Africa got "african", but we? We don't have a meaningful word anymore. And I'm not saying it's your fault or even it's a fault of your founding fathers. I'm just trying to tell you why these people get mad.

There is no continent called "America". We have North America and South America.

When someone says "South American" I don't think Alabama I think Brazil or Argentina.

The term "North American" is commonly used when you're describing something that applies to both Canada and the US. Eg. "North American sports teams".

We commonly use the term "Central American" when referring to Mexico, El Salvador, etc. because even though they are technically in North America there is a strong cultural divide, similar to how the middle East is technically Asia, but you'd never refer to someone from Saudi Arabia as "Asian".

Mexico is also in North America though, not in Central America.

LATAM are usually pissy about the term "Americans" because the "geographical division" colloquially seem to be more of a third vs. first world division rather than a geographical division.

You can see how people from LATAM usually call themselves "americanos" to include everyone from The Americas, but Canada and USA think "North America" doesn't include Mexico.

It's understandable for El Salvador, but México it's absolutely part of North America.

If most people say Korea they mean South Korea. That's because North Korea is far less likely the thing to be referenced, so you need to go out of your way to specify North if you actually mean that instead of South.

Same goes for all kinds of things.

The Korean people are one, regardless of the political situation there.

Other peoples in the Americas have been denied even their right to call themselves part of the continent.

Cool, but my Korean phone wasn't designed by a company based in Pyongyang. And go ahead and ask a Canadian how they feel about being called "American".

North American, Central American, and South American are all terms you can use similarly to European, Asian, or African.

I don't think anyone is denying them the right to call themselves American if they so choose, but as this whole conversation illustrates, the term is incredibly ambiguous. When the argument is that "American" could mean anyone from the Americas, that effectively covers the entire western hemisphere which is a bit nonsensical to me. The point they're trying to make is exactly the problem. There are lots of Americas.

Frankly, I don't understand why this is so much of an issue. There's no continental culture and solidarity connecting the northern tips of Canada to the southernmost parts of Chile. Nobody is trying to erase a deep historical culture of America being one group of people. Why are these people trying so hard to create a continental identity that doesn't culturally exist? I honestly think the point is to take the term "American" away from US Americans just because.

I've never heard of a person from Peru or Brazil or Guatemala deeply yearning to call themselves "American" meaning somewhere in North or South America, but refraining from doing so because they feel marginalized. Feeling marginalized isn't why they don't do it, they don't do it because saying "I'm American" meaning continents is useless. You might as well say "I'm from somewhere on the west side of the Atlantic." The term "American" becomes pointless if you mean it that broadly. Imagine someone from the other side of the Atlantic saying "I'm Eurasiafrican". There's no culture that connects all of those peoples, it would just be a pointless moniker.

Do South and Central American words not exist in spanish? Soy de Sudamérica. Soy de Centroamérica. As the other comment said, this question is not ambiguous at all. And I know why people get mad, they hate the US, which I understand because they're assholes. No one will deny it. Ask any self respecting american and they will agree.

But with all due respect, this is a dumb ass question. Respectfully.

In southern European tradition (which ends up in Latin America), those are not continents but regions. America is the Continent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent

Answer to the last part of your statement

Huh? That article backs me up?

Most English-speaking countries recognize seven regions as continents.

Different variations with fewer continents merge some of these regions

The six-continent combined-America model is taught in Greece and many Romance-speaking countries—including Latin America.

I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about the regions that matter. We already knew Latin Americans refer to it as one. Unfortunately, you have to convince Americans to change their adjective to whatever it is latinos prefer. Good luck with that.

Edit: if my point wasn't clear enough, it doesn't matter what romance language speaking countries call the Americas (North and South). You can see that from the same article you cherry picked the info you copied and paste above

Why are you arguing against yourself? In the comment I replied to you asked if we didn't have a word for South American, and we do, it just doesn't mean the same (edit: because those aren't continents in the Continental model used back when the Americas were being colonized). I'm not sure what you're arguing anymore other than trolling.

That was a rhetorical question about south America. I know the regions and I know what the continents are. I don't need you to explain them to me. Is that all you were trying to say or do you have another point?

Y en español les decimos estadounidenses. Porque son los putos Estados Unidos, y se la calan porque los cabrones no tienen la decencia de ser amables con sus vecinos.

En español deberían decir estadounidenses, que es el gentilicio que tienen en este idioma.

En inglés es batalla perdida.

Puedo harcerte una pregunta? si eres de mexico, te llamarias americano? Querrias hacerlo? Soy de los Estados Unidos y no me importa si te llamas americano, pero no se por que querrias. Yo diria que "soy norteamericano" o "soy latinoamericano".

(Lo siento si mi espanol es malo, estoy aprendiendo).

No soy mexicano, pero hablando en español, si (en los mismos contextos que un francés diría que es europeo, por ejemplo). América es el nombre tradicional del Continente completo.

I'm not Mexican. But in general, as I said in another comment, Americano is in Spanish a politically charged term. South America was plain America way before North America was a thing. American is used by the left for the historical reclaim of ancestral origins. American is used to impose USA cultural hegemony over the whole continent. It's somewhat complex at times. But yes, if I had to contrast my identity against, let's say a European, Asian or African person, I would refer to myself as American. That said, I would probably have to clarify that I am Latin American. Because of said USA cultural hegemony.

Canadians actually emphasize north American culture when they talk about stuff they've got in common with us as opposed to trying to make "united statesian" work like the Spanish speakers

US intervention in the the rest of America isn't ancient history. It's happening right now.

It goes back to the colonies. In the British Empire the continental colonies were "the American colonies," so British subjects from said colonies were called "Americans" for upwards of 200 years prior to the revolution. After the revolution, since Halifax was the only major continental port that remained in British hands, it made sense to call its colonists something else, while those to the south retained the name "Americans."

Conversely, the Caribbean possessions were called "The West Indies" or "The West Indies Station."

It's always been funny to me when latin Americans get pissy at the term American being used to describe the country who's president is Biden ( said with love as mx) . They always try to correct Americans to "estados unidenses" United Statean. Which in my opinion doesn't work for 3 reasons. First name recognition most of the world associate Americans with 'merica. 2nd it's a difficult set of words for Anglo speakers especially vs Americano. Thirdly there are actually 2 countries thats proper name include "United States" those are united states of American and United States of Mexico, who colloquially are known as America and Mexico respectively.

There's also United States of Brazil.

But you've got "Mexican" and "Brazilian" for both of those countries that include United States in their proper names.

I'd continue to say "United statean" in Spanish because that's an accepted name in the Spanish language. There's no confusion to what country you're referring to.

But in English it is a lost battle. If you mean to include people from the entire continent, you'd have to say "American, as in the continent".

Edit: The current official name of Brazil is Federative Republic of Brazil.

America is 2 continents, it'd be easier to say North American/South American. There is rarely a reason to lump both continents together. No one refers to people from Europe or Asia as Eurasians

There are multiple models for continents. The English speaking world uses the 7 continent model. But non-English countries often use a different model. There is a 6 continent model which considers the Americas to be a single continen. It is used much more commonly in Latin and South Americas.

The models of the world that you learned in school are not universal truths.

I am brazilian, and "estadunidense" works perfectly for our daily needs cuz ya know, no one mentions Mexico as "United states"

Oh, fun - I just used Brazilians as an example in another comment. Would you ever say "I'm American" when you're talking about your continent?

In french you can say états-unien and you might translate it as States-nan

In Italian "statunitensi", i.e. United States people

So, basically every language has a specific word for US citizens, except english? LOL

Because in many languages that are not English, America is the whole continent. What Americans call "America" is United States of America. We need a word for their citizens, that is not the name of the inhabitants of the whole continent

In Germany we call them "US-Amerikaner".

As an American, I don't really give a crap what nationality someone calls me as long as they're not being rude. I honestly identify as a Floridian anyway. So, even if I met other Americans overseas, I'd think of them as from their state or cultural area (Plains, Appalachia, Southwest, etc.).

I don't expect people outside of the US to know the difference even though the US supposedly dominates the world with media. I don't know much about the vast majority of other countries, including England. All I know is that people from Liverpool are apparently bollocks...whatever that means.

I thought people from Liverpool are Scousers, bollocks are something entirely different.

According to English people 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, everyone and their dog is a...

(*reads through pages)

"tool".

And according to Australians 🇦🇺, everyone is a...

(*reads through pages again)

"Cunt."

In Italian he/she would be called statunitense, statunitensi for they.

While technically correct, I've never heard a Brazilian refer to themselves as "American" when they intended to mean South American. Linguistically, when you say "American" you're talking about a citizen of the United States, not just any person from the western hemisphere. And if you're talking about a specific continent (North America, Central America, South America) you're going to be specific about it. A Brazilian would say "I'm South American" when referring to their continent.

Brazil considers the Americas to be a single continent, with south/north being subdivisions. A lot of people here don't understand that usa's actual name is America just like the continent, so they often get mad when the word American is used to refer to people from the USA instead of from anywhere in the americas.

If anything we should just rename the continents to remove the confusion.

Or just wait for the secessions to inevitably start rolling in, then the gringos can drop the name. They were second anyways.

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I feel like I've never even heard someone say it like that either. Maybe it's just my bubble but I never hear people refer to themselves by their continent except maybe occasionally Europeans.

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Idk about everybody else, but you can call me Michael (or kase, obv) :)

It also really bothers me that they get to coin the whole American term when it's a terrible representation of America as a continent, the USA doesn't really even have a proper name, it's a description, kinda like calling a dog Dog. Mexico's full name is actually Mexican United States of America.
I personally call them united-statesian when the word gringo doesn't fit the context, which is the translation of estadounidense from Spanish. But it's so stupid because whatever you call them applies to so many more people than just them because they don't have a name! And their states are not really that united.

Especially since one of the states- Hawaii- is not in the Americas

omg, you just blew my mind 😮

We need to change our name to Some United States of America and the Pacific and also Caribbean and Oceania Territories (SUSAPCOT), which could be turned into Susapcotians.

Hi! I'm a Susapcotian 😁 <- big stereotypical Susapcotian smile

In our defense they weren’t a state until our country was nearly 200 years old

♪Booooooorn in the US-A!♪

and you have to sing it in tune to use this term correctly.

To answer your question seriously: As a Canadian, I'd say "...from the States" to describe an American.

Bonus: "our Southern neighbours" is the polite term I use when something stupid happens in the US and I'm hoping and praying Canada can ward off that part of culture making its way here.

In Arabic there's multiple possibilities depending on the speaker, but my favorite is "Amrikani"

Here in Morocco we call them "Mirikani", so it's not that far off.

I am learning Swahili and it's Mmarekani which I bungle the spelling of constantly

In Czech one could say Amíci! Latin anyone?

Technically you could shorten it the other way to Unionist. Which is likely to be confusing, but on the plus side might make some idiots mad.

First off, there is also a North America.

Second, those of us in North and South America refer to ourselves as such. Canadians are North Americans, not Americans.

Third, Americans are usually referred to as Yankees or Yanks outside of America, much like the English are referred to as Poms and the Canadians referred to as Canucks.

Learn about the states and call them by their state name like we do in the US: (washingtonians, oregonians, californians, and so on.)

Internationally people love making fun of Americans for knowing little about geography, but it's always a bit surprising to find out how little people in other countries know about US geography considering many of our states are bigger (size-wise) than many entire countries.

Ok but there’s 50 and most are basically interchangeable to anyone not from there. The difference between Indiana and Illinois to basically anyone not in or bordering them is one has Chicago and the other doesn’t. And those are two of the most politically different states due to the aforementioned Chicago. Cleveland may as well be in Michigan for all some random German has any reason to care. It matters to them as much as it matters to me which kingdom Bonn was in. And which Dakota is which, as an Ohioan not only do I not know, I also don’t care. Oklahoma is basically texas and Wyoming is a national park with a state of disgrace stapled on. And that’s not even getting into the mess of New England.

I don’t expect French people to know which one Ohio is and I’m not gonna be mad if they don’t know of it, in the same way I know of Bordeaux but have no idea where it is beyond somewhere in France. I know a handful of Mexican states so I suppose they probably know of the big ones and the bordering ones

I know about Quebec and Toronto

When I was younger I always confused which side of the border Vancouver was in.

Why would ppl from other countries know the internal division of the US. Thats like asking ppl to know brazillian regions. Or russian ones, or Chinese ones. Those are equally big countries but ppl are not expected to know those internal borders and names.

People make fun of Americans not only because they were ignorant of global geography, but also because they didnt generally show much interest in it. It is a response to american exceptiolism i think. Making fun of those that think that the USA is the best country and all that really matters.

Still i dont find making fun of Americans for that very funny. Specially because its not that true anymore.

That’s actually incredibly unrealistic.

Just about every county in the world is divided into provinces/states/territories.

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I mean you can try and call them by their state but really we’re just American. And we’re selfish enough we claim it exclusively and let other countries in the americas go by their country name or add extra details to the America term

To be fair, American is the most notable part of the United States of America's country name. Calling them Unitedians would be silly, particularly with how prevalent 'United' is in full country names.

This is one of the reasons Americans will often identify themselves as a citizen of their state or even city. They say they're Texan or a New Yorker, for example.

It can come off as conceited, as it's not reasonable to expect non-Americans to have a perfect knowledge of US geography, but it helps the sentences flow and is more accurate/specific than just 'American.'

Yes however the United States was the first modern nation to gain it's independence in the Americas. In the English speaking world that's the term, you can't just make up a new term for ut

Can’t we though? All language is arbitrary at first. A person (or community) often names things, sometimes from pure scratch. The words “Kodak” and “Xerox” come to mind.

Yes a community create a name that becomes used over time. However it has implications farther than just that. African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, are all very common terms for different people in the country by taking away that term, the names for many groups change as well. The fact is in English so many groups use the term, and every single one would have to change how they identify themselves for such a change. I don't believe that is possible.

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I have never heard anyone refer to themselves as American the way people refer to themselves as European. It's really not a thing so there is literally zero confusion when you call a citizen of the USA an American.

Because the USA took that title already.

I know a lot of people from central/south america that are mad about that and they make a comment whenever you say "american." They prefer the term "estadounidense" which is just someone who is from the USA.

I don't blame them because it is pretty self centered especially whenever there are two whole ass continents that term could apply to, but I don't think get the anger around it lol.

I am not American...

Though I live in North America...

Which is part of the Americas...

Which should make me an American.

Which is part of Earth

Which is in the Sol system

So really, we are all Solarians

But we live on Earth

So we're all Earthicans

Terrans.

Because this planet is also called Terra.

It's also called Gaia, but Gaians sounds silly.

Why?

It has a nice ring to it but as a Master of Orion player, Gaia stage is the ultimate stage of eco balance in a planet, not a native from it.

US Citizen. It's the simplest and most accurate. There are plenty of people living in the US who are not citizens, but anyone born here is automatically a US Citizen, no matter who their parents are. It's another one of the half-decent things about this country the far-right Republicans would like to get rid of.

but anyone born here is automatically a US Citizen, no matter who their parents are

Not completely true. The children of foreign officials like ambassadors and diplomatic staff do not gain American citizenship by birth.

Oh interesting, it's because they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, ie they have diplomatic immunity. But they can register to become a legal permanent resident.

Can you say "Diplomatic Immunity" without the sneer and accent from Lethal Weapon 2?

The word I use most often aside from American is Seppo, which is derogatory rhyming slang (sep + -o, from septic tank → Yank → Yankee)

If somebody called me a seppo, I wouldn't be offended, I'd just think they were kind of dumb. It's just too silly to take seriously as an insult.

I've heard this in Australia but nowhere else. Is this Australian slang, or does somewhere else use it too?

NZ and UK use it too. I think I first learned it from a Brit.

We Brits generally use Yank, but Seppo is more Oz than UK. Though Aussie slang does tend to catch on on over here for some reason...

Look at all the seppos getting cranky at this one :) I just came in to post Seppo but you beat me

Frankly, I'm not seeing any negative replies or downvotes.

I'm a US citizen myself, though I live in and am also a born citizen of Norway. So being in basically a quantum superposition between being and not being a US-American, you could imagine that I'd have a bit of a specific perspective about the country, that would draw me to using words like "Seppo".

In the context of your question: The name of their country.

Americans are called that because they're from the United States of America.

You could refer to the continent they're from (North American or South American) but that's less common.

Its always fun to reply when someone answered the question of where they're from with America with "Oh OK, like Mexico (or any other country in America)?

(or any other country in America)?

There is no continent or other country-containing region known as "America". The proper term for the area you are describing is "The Americas", referring to North, South, and Central America, collectively.

"From America" can only correctly describe a person originating in the United States of America. A Canadian or Mexican person would be described as "From North America" or "From the Americas".

I generally use 'USican', pronounced yoo-ess-ican. Every seemseto understand me.

Edit: this may be the most controversial thing i've said on lemmy.