Americans Shouldn't Be Called American
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- Опубліковано 17 лис 2022
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SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Demonyms: www.thoughtco.com/the-names-o...
Demonyms For The United States: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym...
US States Demonyms: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
What demonym do you think people from the USA should use?
Fredonian/Stateser
Yank
US Americans
"American" when speaking to people IRL and "US-American" when speaking to people online that dislike the people of the USA being called by the former demonym.
How about 'mericans from United States of' Merica
Brazilian here, the terms "norte americano" and "estadunidense" are not necessarily the most widly used ones (at least not by a large margin), but they are common enough, and just "americano" (american) can be used just for the US or for the whole continent, depending on the context. "Estadunidense" seems to be the most common in academic literature, and "norte americano" can be ambiguous for also pontencially including Canada and Mexico
Norte Americano could also refer to Canadians, as Canada is also part of North America as well.
@@heronimousbrapson863 Yes, as well as Mexico, just like I said
Personally, I would use "American" in the broader sense of all "peoples of the Americas". It depends on context. But it shows that how people from other parts of the world view the term "American" is not necessarily the same in the rest of the Americas. But the reason for people of the US calling themselves "Americans" is historical, with the migrations an all, and thus it is reserved to them, at least in the English language and languages of people from countries which they came. Originally, meant as "of/belonging to America". As "my American family members".
Exactly!
I often tell people that I don't live in America, I live in New York. 👍 🙂 🇺🇲
Mexican here, when it comes to referring to people from the US, what's most common is "gringo" for everyday talk, and estadounidense if you're writing something more formal. I've never seen "Norteamericano" be used because most Mexicans see The Americas as a single continent, and when we do use the term "North America", we mean the US, Canada, and Mexico
Don't be calling us Gringo's just because you're jealous you're whole family is trying to flee here
@@jakephreel "don't call us American just because your family is trying to flee here"
It's just a way to call someone from a certain country, more commonly the USA, if you're triggered by it then that's your problem
@@jakephreel it's just a word, just like your "Mexican"
Gringo is probably the most offensive term you could call many of us. I automatically assume your a racist and xenophobe. Because the people who use the term means it to be rude and derogatory. It is meant to bring down others. It's a term along with many others that needs to not be accepted.
@@baronvonjo1929 its a term to refer to a person, it's like saying that someone is immigrant, so that word is offensive too, and you're the one being racist because apparently saying gringo is racist, assuming that Americans are only a single race, so you're excluding people like black people for example from term American, the people who use the term mean it in a normal way, if you're offended by it then that's your own fault
Hey there, Costa Rican here! "Estadounidense" is most definitely a very utilized word for calling a person from the USA. So much so that I don't really hear anyone saying "americano" in my daily life (though there probably is people). "Norteamericano" is also a fairly used word too. We also have "gringo" which can certainly be derogatory for some US people but over time we kinda forgot it was offensive and used it more in a more friendly manner jeje.
Personally, when I'm talking in English I jokingly like to call Americans "usasians", just think it's really goofy
Idk if gringo was bad before but it isn't now and if someone is triggered by it then it's their problem
@@mariotheundying they probably should find why we say these things and realize we dont say it just cause we hate them, but due to what they did to us
I’m Gringo, and I don’t mind. My parents immigrated here from Argentina, but I was born in the USA which makes me full blooded Gringo.
Que onda mae, happy to see another tico here :D
@@SpecterDiego idk bro i never find people with any ulterior implication of using the word other than just calling a usasian
Also in italian we have "statunitense" as a demonym for americans. Typically used to avoid repetition of words or in more formal contexts (like on wikipedia).
Taking any advice from the country that allied with Hitler is laughably bad.
Yeah what I don't like about that though is its about the United States, which is just one government that has existed here, and will probably not exist here at some point in the future. America as a nation really begins in the 1600's, long before there is a United States.
@@alexanderfretheim5720 America as a nation didn't exist before America as a nation existed... what are you on about brother. Before there was a UNITED STATES OF AMERICA there was no such thing as an American Nation. At that point in time America only meant the continent of America, it only started meaning someone from the United States of America when the USA was created, and then the continents were divided in two in the English language to avoid confusion.
@@josephabellojr The United States is the country, not the nation. The nation begins in the 1600's. Or have you never heard of Plymouth Rock?
@@josephabellojr The United States is just a constitution, a "union of states". It's a sovereign law and that is it. The actual nation is America, and it has existed since the 1600's. In the case of France, the nation is France, which is ancient, while the country is the Fifth Republic, which has existed since 1958. Since they are coterminous, both America and the United States can be referred to as a nationstate. Nationstates are so common in today's world that we tend to sometimes use the words nation and country interchangeably, but a nation is a people whereas a country is a sovereign jurisdiction of law.
When you think about it, the EU has a similar problem, where the adjective referring to something of the EU is "European", and yet they don't encompass the whole continent of Europe.
Good point. I think this is the most approximate example possible. With the exception made that the EU is potentially an all-encompassing pan-european ideal, while USA isn't
Interesting, although I think the issue is kind of more faint when it comes to conitnental classifications, as those are naturally arbitrary...
@@bennythetiger6052 The whole problem is the US using the name "America", even though they don't encompass the entire continent of America. It's essentially the same thing.
There are countries that are not in the EU, but that are nonetheless in Europe, even if you use the least generous definition of what "Europe" is, and that includes not recognizing Europe as a separate continent (as even then you would need to acknowledge that there is an area of the world called "Europe" in Eurasia or Afroeurasia).
if i wanted to refer to someone from specifically the EU and not the rest of Europe, i'd say something like "from the EU" instead of "European".
@@Vrealita Manifest Destiny would disagree with, "E.U. potentially represents all of Europe, while the USA doesn't." So would the Monroe doctrine or many interventions since. I do not often like many of the reasons my nation interferes with other Nations from the Americas, but saying the "American" name rooted in 1800's imperial ambitions wasn't rooted in ideals or intentional is be blind to a few dozen wars, (ignoring the hundreds of indian wars the usa fought.) Wars or War-like Actions include: Panamanian indipendance, Mexico 3 times, CIA coups for everyone, Canada twice, Spain twice, Cuba, several island nations, Haiti a number of times, the British Twice, and lots of other weird stuff. Also Billions and Billions in trade, aid, and investment are done yearly. I forget how much of USA trade is from the Americas, but i know that Mexico and Canada have remained in the top 3 or 4 trading partners for 30years usually beating China.
As a Canadian, I have no issue calling people from the US as American. I actually find it more annoying when people from Europe “correct” me online about how Canadians are also Americans. This happens far more often than I would have expected.
As an American who loves my Canadian friends, I wouldn't want anyone (Europeans or otherwise) to call you Canadians Americans... I'd get offended if I were Canadian and that happened... haha! I did, however, pretend to be Canadian on my solo backpack trip to the UK back in the 90s. Heh.
@@EricaGamet I couldn't pass for being canadian my southern accent is too strong
@@roxxxydubois Just tell people you're from Southern Canada, eh.
@@EricaGamet So you hid your identity as an American? Not very patriotic or American of you.
@@AsukaLangleyS02 I don't feel the need to shout my patriotism from the rooftops, so I'm not worried. If you've ever traveled to other countries, you've seen how we are perceived. In fact, I was on a small, local tour in Scotland... and there was an American family there we all dubbed The Griswolds. Telling people I was Canadian didn't give them any stereotypical preconceived notions about me.
Fun fact: Here in Italy we call people from United States, "Statunistense", we even use use "Americano" but it's not as used es the other one
Spanish and Italian sister languages
I have never heard a Italian person call Americans that, most Italians I meet must refer to ppl from the US just simply American.
@@beasley1232 Many times, in order not to confuse them, they just say "American". But it doesn't mean they don't use other words
im from Argentina, and yeah, we call them "estadounidense" because its simple and concise enough, in almost slang ultra casual you can also hear "yanqui" with mostly no ill intent, mostly because most of us don't even really care(or know) about the etymology of the word, it has been adopted as a informal way to call someone from the united states
Being fair yankee lost its derogatory power immediately given the US Revolutionary Armies openly took the term either pride especially in the North. And the last ones to use it as an insult in anyway (disregarding sports/city rivalry stuff) were the slave holding losers.
Ok then imma call Hispanics/Latinos “b3aners” and “w3tbacks”
@@Dora-xi5ob Do it I dont care. We are not 'Hispanic', neither 'Latino'. We are Argentinians. The worst thing that you can call us is Nazi's, probably. Because you dont even know where our country is.
@@Uriel4-9-476 y’all get mad when we call y’all “Latinx”
I don't give a fuck, because im not a "Latinx people". Cope and seethe.
in Afrikaans we have a particular conundrum regarding the demonyms. the name of the language literally translates as "from Africa", but the people who speak it have adopted it as their cultural identity especially with the term "Afrikaner" (Afrikaner refers to a single person, while also being a colloquial term referring to the descendants of the Dutch Settlers, ie Afrikaans-speaking white people). both terms almost exclusively refer to people who speak Afrikaans as their native language. however, the demonym for a African-born person (especially Black people) is also technically "Afrikaans". We apply the same rules to other countries that end in "-can", so "American" becomes "Amerikaans/Amerikaner" and "South Africa" becomes "Suid-Afrikaans/Afrikaner". in order to distinguish the Black Africans and non-Afrikaans speaking white people from the Afrikaans-speaking population, we refer to them as "Afrika-mense" (African people) and Engelse Suid-Afrikaners (English-speaking South Africans).
I remember hearing about that. lol
Enemy!!!
Ngikufisela usuku oluhle/Lekker dag
@@Ghibli_73 Nawe. Mntwana wakithi. 😁
Africa is a country & African is a citizenship if America is a country & American is a citizenship.
Love how you missed a 4th country with United in the name: México
You also have the United Republic of Tanzania
If you want to go to Union countries too then you also have the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the Union of the Comoros
@überguy No. It's United States of Mexico.
@@ambiguoussarcasm No. It's "United Mexican States", which is not the same!
United States of Brazil too.
@@Vrealita it's "United Mexican States" when translated to English. but then, it would be "United American States" too. in Spanish, the name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos". just some fun facts.
I'm American and live in Honduras (Central America). Estadounidense is like the right way to go but people just call us "gringo" (male) and "gringa" (female) most times. Whenever I want to say I'm American without using "American", I go with "I'm from the United States" or "I'm from the US", etc.
Yet one more reason for us Texans to keep identifying as "Texans" internationally!
@@randlebrowne2048 Yes! I'm from Florida and that's also a good way to identify. The thing is that some states are recognized internationally more than others like New York, California, Texas, Florida. If I said I'm from Idaho, most people outside of the US would have no idea what that is lol.
@@juandhiego who wouldn't know Idaho? i mean im not from the US so
@@Wahrheit_ Believe me, there's lots of people who can't even name a single state lol
@@juandhiego lmao, I guess i know because i like to study all that stuff 🤓👍
Back in the day, my Junior or senior year of high school we had a Venezuelan exchange student. One day he was telling us about an exchange he got into with a local when he called himself an American... The local refused to accept he was American. "Yeah, I'm from Venezuela!" "SEE! YOUR NOT AMERICAN!" "yes I am... Venezuela is in South America, so technically"
Totally that is right and is geography correct and logic
What high school was that?
"Americans" should be used the same way people use "Europeans".
no because there is two Americas south and north. there is only one group of people known as American and they are from the United States of America
Except there is no continent “America”.
Unless you think Africa, Asia, and Europe are just one continent too
Tienes razón y soy de Ecuador! 😀🤚🇪🇨
English doesn't recognize a single continent called America
Is it not
In English it's American. Words can mean more than one thing. One can say American and mean someone from either continent in the Americas as well as someone from the USA. I don't understand why that is an issue. Let's say someone is from Honduras and goes to Paris, let's say. If asked what their nationality is why would they identify with their continent and not their nation? It makes zero sense. I respect that in SPANISH we are called Estadunidenses, but in English it's American. I would prefer to identify with my city or state than use a term like Usonian or United Statesian.
it has to do with the anti usism of people bitching about the demonym of the us is the name of an entire continent
This. If I'm in Mexico or Peru, I say estadounidense because I was taught that's the proper term. All countries or languages have the opportunity to create their own words for things - so I don't understand why it would be unfair for English to use the work American to refer to the people or things from the USA. We have different words/terms when referring to the region of The Americas - North American, South American, New World, Pan American... so there isn't any confusion. Also worth noting that for most of Latin America, they consider North and South America to be one continent and not two - so that probably adds to the confusion. Same as how some nations consider Europe and Asia to be one continent and not two, but it isn't unfair that English people don't call themselves Eurasian.
More simple is they are just europeans in america and real Americans are the Natives. we call europeans in any of the Americas eruo-americans if they are not Native.
So why people still use these phrases?: “he is African”, “she is an European girl”, “they love Asian food”. You have not understood how big is this issue regarding the identity for those living in The Americas.
@@geografisica When has anyone, when speaking English, been confused by someone saying "she's an American girl"? In English, no one would ever say something is American and mean it came from Canada or Argentina or anywhere other than the US. And, in English, North America and South America are separate continents - so you would refer to things as North or South American if you were referring to the whole continent. It's pretty rare to need to speak about the entirety of The Americas - it's usually only done politically or historically and there are terms specific to that in English. So I'm not sure what the issue is.
I remember for a while, there was a small group of people calling us the United Statesians but anyone who used that term usually were very smug about it.
Because it's ridiculous stright up bloody awful.
I'll just stick with American.
At least it's less confusing than the term "American."
America is a continent, not a country.
An American is from the Continent of America.
@@justoad I usually just say "US American" because United Statesian doesn't roll off the tongue nicely and it's kind of smug.
It’s quite interesting that we sometimes use the term US to refer to something belonging to the USA instead of American for a lot of things. Such as US Dollars, US Border, US Soil, US Senate, US Person, US President, etc. In fact I think that is the official term that is used by the government, not “American”.
As someone who's father is from Indiana and lived there for 5 years, Hoosier is pronounced "who-zher" not "who-zi-er".
As a Hoosiers, I back this
I guess you really know Hoosier daddy!
...Sorry, I had to.
Zh like the french j?
@@omargerardolopez3294 Exactly, like in "Je suis un Hoosier".
@@omargerardolopez3294 yes
Here in Peru we call them estadunidense mostly. Also Norteamericano but I think that’s most used in Central American countries and Mexico .
@@everettatwater2939 mmm yeah so
@@everettatwater2939 si y ??
En Ecuador también! 😀🤚🇪🇨
@@Adrian4239 E=Eso
C=C Tilin
Nope most prople in mexico call them "Gringos" Not North Americans because Mexico is also part of North America
As an American it is common to hear us refer to our friends and some family as asshole so I use that. 😂😂
Weirdly, I think that's the proposed one we'd be most likely to go for.
Lol
@@MuriKakari Agreed. Lol
Here in Argentina is more common to hear "Yanqui" (Yankee) in casual conversation with "Estadounidense" and "Norteamericano" being more formal, and many people do consider it incorrect or even a bit offensive to refer to an US citizen as "Americano".
The one we definitely don't use is "Gringo" since here "gringo" usually means blonde or it can even refer to someone of German descent.
Yankee is only for people from New England. What a stupid suggestion.
Also, northern Italian descent in the case of Gringo
@@AsukaLangleyS02 I wasn't suggesting it, I was just pointing out a thing that happens, it's not like neither you or me can change how the dialect works. It is what it is, and it isn't that rare for a name that originally only applied to one region to later get generalized to a whole country.
I’m Argentinian and my friends & I def use gringo jsjs
Yankee refers to people from the north east coast using it to define any American is kinda wrong as you wouldn’t call everyone a midwesterner or a Californian
In the rare event that you need to refer to someone or something pertaining to the Americas as a whole--and not specifically the U.S., North America, or South America--couldn't you simply say "pan-American" to avoid any confusion?
very true sir
I usually just say “The Americas” or “The New World”
I say the Americas
pan-american would imply that it comes from every part of America, so it wouldn't be used in some context
Pan American is still confusing, because it has “American” on it, and the rest of the World would still think is just the US.
In spanish “estadounidense” is more common than “americano”. Also in french is common the term “états-unien” than “américain”. In South America it can be rude to use the term “americano” when referring only to the USA. There’s a song by Residente called “This is not America” who refers to this polemic from a latin perspective.
Same here in Italy where the official endonym for people or things from The US is "Statunitense".
Sounds like a cope from trashy South America
you're a north American and an American
@@everettatwater2939 yeah right, he's from Florida
@@everettatwater2939 Dude the Américas is a single continent, all the latin world knows the new world as America.
American here, I can confirm that we are in fact Americans
Snaciremas
Ya hell ya
@user-mx8ne3bu9nyeah our continent
@Marty Yo No, North America is a continent and South America as a continent not the entire thing
@@AnimatedStuffCountryballs North west Easy south there's still the same América 🤡 Is just the a Us concept to exclude people From others countrys
That concept Is only used in US but un the most countrys of América like latam use the concept of one América and the other a sub divition not important
Is just like a votation 👈🤡
Chilean Southerner here, we use the term "estadounidense" as the default american denonym, though "north american" is mostly used in terms of canda and US as a general cultural area as you might've guessed. Calling someone "americano" might give you some seconds of confused looks, people here dont associate "americano/a" with being from the US since its such a borad term, so it might take some time for them to figure it out. Even when we have a whole section of clothing called "Ropa Americana" (american clothing) most people struggle to make the connection, including myself for most of my life. Im not sure how things are in the big cities, since i live in a pretty rural area.
Yankee is mostly used by older folk (anyone above 35) to refer to anyone coming from the states though its usage in recent times has declined. Gringo has been and continues to be the generally used term for any european-looking foreigner at least here, from italian, german, canadian to brittish anyone with fair skin that doesnt speak your tounge can be considered a gringo.
"Gringo" is a racial slur. How about we start calling people from Latin American countries "B3aners” or “w3tbacks”
@@Dora-xi5ob Gringo, cope harder.
@@Uriel4-9-476 so gringo means foreigner? Then why is it used by Hispanics IN THE US to refer to white Americans or Hispanics who are not culturally Hispanic?
@@Dora-xi5ob I don't care what they do. In my country we don't use that stupid ass mexican word. It's funny because you get angry by it. I would use yankees for your people
In English though, the demonym "American" has been used since the colonial period, before it was ever used to apply to anybody else. There's no reason to change it now just because somebody has an axe to grind.
In Spanish language, also in colonial times Spanish Americans from the whole continent were called "Americanos", so as to differentiate them from "European (Peninsular)" Spanish people.
So the "American" identity also predates the Independence of Hispanic American nations and it is a unique identifier that give us the sense of a common belonging, as well as a shared history and struggles.
@@Vrealita That's really interesting! Thanks for sharing.
@@Vrealita That's nice, but we're speaking English, not Spanish. We're not americanos. We're Americans. They are cognates, but not the same word.
@@innocentsmith6091 I would rather say they translate each other. They could be used differently, but dictionary wise would be the equivalent in the other language. I don't mind how the word "American" is used though.
I think the core of the issue is that unlike many other regions in the Americas, the US didn't have a "secondary name" by the British during the colonial period as the region was just known as "the Thirteen Colonies". So with no other pan-state demonym that wouldn't upset parts of the country, "American" just became the defacto term.
Yankee is usually considered derogatory and that's why it isn't very popular. Out of all your suggestions, the only one I really liked was: fredonian. This is because the USA is big on our freedoms. Maybe it should catch on.
The other problem with the term “Yankee” is that it’s use is highly regional within the United States.
To paraphrase an old quote…
“To the world, a Yankee is someone from America.
To an American, a Yankee is someone from the north.
To someone from the north, a Yankee is someone from the northeast.
To someone from the northeast, a Yankee is someone from New England.
To someone from New England, a Yankee is someone from Vermont.
And to someone from Vermont, a Yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.”
@@solarsailor1534 I was never called a Yankee until I moved to the Hell That Is Texas.
@@moonpie1971 lmaooo
@@solarsailor1534 I like pie for breakfast, but despite being a Connecticuter, I don't mind Yankee
If you ask someone from Central America, South America, Mexico, some European countries, Africa and Asian, they'll tell you that the US is not to much about freedom (((
I think it comes down to how a group describes itself, not how others identify them. Ukraine decided to not be The Ukraine. The peoples decide what they're called.
What Americans are called in other languages doesn't matter much. Japanese might say amerika-jin while Koreans would say mikuk-in. But in English it would be rude to call me anything other than what I choose to be called.
THANK YOU I don't care what language you speak if you are in someone else's country speaking their language they should refer to the people of that country in their native language period
So, are you saying people from the Continent of America 🌎 can't call themselves Americans since they're from the Continent of America 🌎?
@@CaptainAmerica001 people can call themselves whatever they want. It only gets confusing if you choose a name that someone popular already uses. I might ask friends and family to call me Keanu Reeves, but somebody quite famous already uses that name and it could become confusing.
@@dfunited1
Cool, so an American is from the Continent of America 🌎!👍
@@CaptainAmerica001 There is no continent of america there is North America in South America they are 2 separate continents that are not related to one another.
Chilean here! In my experience, the most common demonyms for the USA are "estadounidense" and "gringo", for formal and informal contexts, respectively. Though gringo is also valid for any (non spanish) western european, as well as australians. In that sense, it is really a synonym for "white" or "colonizer", and may be used in a derogatory way. "North-american" is also used, often to prevent repeating "estadounidense" over and over (e.g. in the news).
"American" is also used, but it often leads to misunderstandings and I personally only use it when I'm talking about the continent. Using it as a demonym for the US may also have a slight political undertone, as it is mostly used in that way by "gringos" and right-wingers, and evokes the phrase "South America is the backyard of the US" and its ties to imperialism.
America is not a country or a nation. Since it's neither of those, 'American' is not a nationality, a citizenship or a term exclusively for/from the USA 🇺🇲.
Furthermore, an American is from the Continent of America 🌎👍
'Estadounidense' is a direct & accurate translation of the official citizenship of the United States of America 🇺🇲.
Estado(State)Unido(United)Ense(Inhabitant, resident, citizen of the region or area)
Estadounidense = U.S. Citizen
Officially 👍
"Gringo" is a racial slur. How about we start calling people from Latin American countries "B3aners” or “w3tbacks”
So is “colonizer”. The Europeans who colonized the Americas were colonizers, not white people today.
@@Dora-xi5obBut you burger gobbler gringos already do so. Why play victim now?.
In México is usually Estadounidense, but is even more frequent to just say Gringo.
I’ve always wondered what does gringo translate to (or what word is the closest approximation) in English?
@@GeneralBulldog54 There is no exact translation.
I had heard that it comes from the word "griego" (Greek), and people used it to describe someone who spoke a foreign language because they thought they spoke Greek.
In Mexico, most people use it as a synonym for "estadounidense", although there are some people who also use it to refer to Canadians.
@@GeneralBulldog54 the origin story i grew up with was that during the battle of the alamo, mexican soldiers would sneak up and hear texans singing "where the *green grass grows*" and it came from ther. Gringo usually means WASP americans, sometimes black americans are called that too, but mostly to white americans
@@GeneralBulldog54 I understand that "Gringo" was used when referring to the people of the USA in an annoying tone, but in itself it never meant an insult to the people of the USA.
Currently, calling people from the US "Gringo" is more of an informal tone of calling them. But when you speak formally, we call them "Estadounidense."
We like being called American. We get its not really correct, but, its most commonly used and by far the most accepted term by people that live in the US. In english, anyway.
i still vibe with other languages not using a form of american
U sure?
@@julietab-ej6clI mean the other two common terms are southerner or Yankee in usa for their people or Texan which are both Texan and southern. Unless you want to call people from usa by their state/region name I suggest just using american as we all still agree we're americans at least for now.
Colombian here, definetly the most used demonim is "Estadounidense" followed by "Gringo" and then perhaps "Americano" but yes we see it as an appropiaton of a continental identity.
Fun fact before Colombia became independent it was a debate in US congress to change the name of the usa to Colombia. but then Colombia got its independence and so the debate ended
I wanna press you on this: Why do you think there's a shared continental identity between people from the northern islands of Canada, through Mexico, down to Tierra del Fuego? Don't you think that's far too broad?
@@QuantumOfSilence and European, African or Asian aren't? Continental identities are very broad by definition, but they are there.
@@CarolinaMatamorosF Would you be offended if I called you a South American?
@@daviddorsett7550
No need for cardinal points to tell you where Colombia is in America.
Do you?
Gonna be hard to change that, especially since many people also add ethnicity demonym next to American, in regards to their identity, such as Japanese American, Polish American, and Mexican American.
I'm Brazilian and honestly I've heard this debate since I was a kid and I find it very cringy. Yes, America is the name of the continent and also the name of the country. I know about the "cultural" issue, but I think worrying about this is at least somewhat childish.
Here in Brazil we have states and cities sharing names and that's not a big issue; while there are still different words for someone born in the city of São Paulo (paulistano) and the state of São Paulo (paulista), most of the time people will know what place you're talking about just from the context.
I won't mind if a new official name for someone born in the US is crafted, but, if it's to be made from scratch, let's make something which at least resembles American (such as paulista/paulistano) or at least something completely original (for example: someone born in the city of Rio is carioca, someone born in the state of Rio is fluminense; none of these words resemble the Portuguese word Rio, which means river).
Statesian is just horrible. Kingdomish too. Some people in Brazil say "estadunidense" instead of "americano" and it sounds cocky and stupid. Either a nicer name is created or we stick to "American" and trust the context until a new name starts to occur naturally. That's not that big of an issue.
We're fine as we are. These people can seriously get over themselves.
There is no American Continent. North and South America are separate just like Asia and Europe are separate
@@user-id4oi3hl7b this is somewhat debatable, but yes, generally when someone here wishes to refer to themselves as from a certain continent, they go with South American, not just American. In fact, this "American pride" thing is highlighted only when this "Americans shouldn't be called Americans" "debate" comes up.
@@user-id4oi3hl7b More like how Eurasia and Africa are separate.
They are literally MORE separate than Europe is from Asia, where neither geography nor geology supports the distinction.
@@user-id4oi3hl7b Europe is not a continent, it's Eurasia.
We, Brazilians use the term "Estadunidense" to refer to people from the USA. It's very commom!
Yeah but that just wont work in English grammatically or as a pleasant way to say it
@@stes_ Statian sounds nice to me
@@Omouja I think you might need help
no tf it ain't, literally everyone in brazil uses americano, if you pull a "estadunidense" you instantly give away your political position
the most used word in brazil is by far americano
In Italy there's also the term "statunitense ", although it's not often used colloquially, but it's the go-to demonim if you're a journalist, you write fiction or just want to talk more formally. As we speak casually, as it's been said in the video, we say americano / americana depending on grammatical gender. Fun fact, styles of coffee like Americano, cappuccino, espresso end with o because they refer to and agree in gender with "il Caffè ", that is masculine.
Dominican here (from the Spanish speaking country lol), we do use estadounidense a lot more than anything else if we're talking about formal speech, but in most cases anyone speaking English is called a gringo.
I've heard all manner of names used to identify the people of the Americas and their respective regions. No one calls a Mexican from Mexico or a Brazilian from Brazil an "American", and not even because they are technically Americans from the Americas and that would be a proper use of the word anyways. Nope. We distinguish by the country over here. I suppose you could say, "I'm a US American" to make a distinction, but you could NEVER get me to call myself a "United Statestian," or a "United Statesmen". Sounds weird.
The reason the term American stuck is cuz it was used before the US was even a thing. Back in the old colonial times we would have been called "British American" and after the revolution, obviously, the British part was dropped and people just kept using American. And there is still the issue that the US isn't the only country divided into states just like how Britannia isn't the only one with a Kingdom. Really the issue is there's no unique word to use for the US both within and outside the country that doesn't feel clunky or confusing to us, like for example Washingtonian could be confused with people from the state of Washington. at least Britain is the only place with the British name. If anything i think all we need is a simple modifier or alteration of American so the shift isn't so jarring and potentially confusing, it could be as simple as Americonian or something. the more familiar it is the less pushback there would be, large sudden language shift can be confusing and jarring and would upset anyone of any country
But the big issue is we would need to push against over 400 years of this term being used for the people living in what used to be the British American Colonies. That's an extremely uphill battle as there's so many documents and stories and media that refer to us as American it would take a very long time for it to fall out of use especially with those in the states who feel a very very very strong connection to the word American so i doubt any change will happen unless there is a miracle
Spanish America precedes 'British America'.
The region where Brasil is now was named America way before the USA🇺🇲 existed.
In conclusion, regardless of what continental model anyone follows, it doesn't automatically make América a country & 'American' a term only for the U.S.A.🇺🇲!👍
América definitely is not a country or a nation. Therefore, 'American' isn't a nationality, a citizenship, or a term exclusively for the U.S.A.🇺🇲
Anyone who uses these terms as such is due to selfishness, ignorance, conceitedness, laziness, stubbornness, indoctrination, and/or arrogance!
Furthermore, an American is from the Continent of América!👍
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 has a simple, basic, generic, & descriptive name that's easy to comprehend & not misinterpret in any way or language!
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 simply means we are STATES, that are UNITED, on the Continent 'OF' AMÉRICA!
Not América of the United States!!!😏
It's what our Founding Fathers & authors meant, and still means!👍
Greetings from the U.S.A.🇺🇲, an American from the Continent of América!
English is my 1st language!
AMÉRICA 🌎🌎🌎 🇲🇽🇧🇷🇨🇴🇦🇷🇨🇦🇵🇪🇻🇪🇨🇱🇪🇨🇬🇹🇧🇴🇭🇹🇨🇺🇩🇴🇭🇳🇵🇾🇸🇻🇳🇮🇺🇲🇨🇷🇵🇦🇺🇾🇯🇲🇹🇹🇬🇾🇸🇷🇧🇿🇧🇸🇧🇧🇱🇨🇬🇩🇻🇨🇦🇬🇩🇲🇰🇳
United States of AMÉRICA 🇺🇲
An American is from the Continent of América.
We are ALL Americans!!!
I approve this message.👍
Hopefully that'll help!👍
@@CaptainAmerica001 I brought up British America as why Americans still get called American as, unlike Brazil, we never got a unique Demonym to refer to ourselves and the general term "American" stuck. I do agree that it has problems though and it would take a lot of work and effort to change due to how long this demonym has been getting used. And yes American is not a legally recognized nationality, it's a demonym, the nationality would be United States of America. And I know what United States of America means the issue is the demonym American, used to refer to the colonial people on the Central North American territory colonized by the British, predates the United States by a good few 100 years. And being Generic is the problem, the name USA is way too generic, other countries have United States in their name but then have a unique name like Mexico, Venezuela, and Columbia. The best solution I can see is to make a more unique demonym with what we already have: US-American or Americonian. Hell I'm even fine with using State names as demonyms the only issue is it requires everyone else to know the names of every state in the US and also Georgia could cause confusion for some.
@@Ace-theCat
How about using our official nationality or citizenship instead of the demonym that belongs to the Continent of America?
Don't we do that already for other countries?
@@CaptainAmerica001 No, we don't. How nationality is legally written is very different from how demonyms are used in conversation. Take Kiwi for example, it is a demonym but the legally recognized nationality is New Zealand, just the name of the country with no modification. While that is a good starting point it is the whole reason we're in this problem to begin with. most places that follow the name format "United _____ (of) ______" always ends up with the final term becoming their demonym like Mexico or historically Brazil, even the Emirates adopts the terminal word of their name as their demonym. The USA just has a really poorly thought out name. Also there is no Continent of America, there are called The Americas because there are two of them North America (From Greenland to Panama) and South America (From Venezuela to Chile) it is similar to how Europe and Asia exist on the same land mass but are separated into two distinct continents anyways, but we are still all American if we so choose to use the term.
An intriguing video as always Name Explain.
Although, I'd like to try and expand on a point that you *surprisingly* *only* *briefly* touched, since most comments here are from the perspective of *Romance language* speakers.
*Not all non-English languages have the same translation for the United States of America* (except for the aforementioned Romance languages). Thus there is not a single solution that fits all.
I don't know how would you translate the "United States of America" in languages such as Japanese or Arabic, but I presume that they don't have an equivalent of United Statesian/Estadounidense/Estadunidense in their language. Or that they do, but it's rarely, if ever, used by their speakers for one reason or another. Thus calling them, say, "Amerika-jin" or "Amrikki" is easier.
Take Malay and Indonesian for example - our translation for the United States of America is Amerika Syarikat/Serikat (due to historical reasons), which literally means something like "American Union/Cooperation/Company" instead of a more correct term like "Negeri-negeri Bersatu Amerika" or "Kesatuan Negeri-negeri Amerika". And we call the people "Orang Amerika" - Americans.
Thus, if you take away the "Amerika" part of the name, we are left with Syarikat/Serikat, which means "Union/Cooperation/Company". Thus we would be calling them "Orang Syarikat/Serikat", which is equivalent to calling them Unioners/Cooperationers/Companiers. It just sounds so awkward and does not pronounce easily.
Sure, a term can be coined and it may work, but it'll take a very, very long time.
We could just take the easy way and call them Orang Barat (Westerners) or Orang Puteh or Bule (White People) like most of us are doing now, but that'll open up another can of worms I presume.
Actually Japanese do have an alternative for Amerika-jin: it's Beikoku-jin. Beikoku is the abbreviature of "Amerika Gasshuukoku" ("United States of America"). The "koku" comes evidently from "Gasshuukoku", while the "Bei" is the alternative reading for the kanji that means "rice", which happens to have also the reading "me" in "Amerika". This is because you can actually write "Amerika" in kanji, not only with katakana.
As a Costa Rican, when I'm speaking in Japanese, I always use "Beikoku" and "Beikoku-jin" to refer to USA and their people respectively. If a Japanese happen to ask me why I use that actually not so used word, I explain why I prefer it, without trying to start a fight, of course.
As far as calling Americans 'Yankees', there are actually large swaths of the country that'll get angry at you... Just like calling a Scotsman 'British'.
It's actually more akin to calling a Scotsman English. Southerners have been known to say Yankee about North Easterners in approximately the same contexts as an angry Scotsman saying Sassenach.
@@MuriKakari I'm talking as a West-Coast USA person who has been SCREAMED at by a Scotsman for calling her a Brit IRL, took her about a minute to look like she didn't want to attack me afterward. >.>
@@zephodb Fair. I've only seen them get that angry about English.
The United Republic of Tanzania must feel left out here.
In Year 7 French we were always taught to say《 je suis anglais 》or《 je suis gallois 》so I didn't hear the word 'britannique' until Year 10 when we watched a video in class about a guy from... you guessed it, Northern Ireland!
My Dad is technically a "U.S. Ian" ever since he got naturalized citizenship.
In German you sometimes see "US-Amerikaner" and "US-amerikanisch" in order to make it absolutely clear they're not referring to some other America, but the scope for confusion is narrower than in say, Mexico or Brazil.
Toanswer that question ( 7:56 ), in hispanicamerica (all spanish speaker latinamerican countries) we do use "Estadounidense" in reference of a person from the US. Tho this is the correct word for us, the really common word for them is "Gringo" that may come from greek, for when (I don't if Spanish or Hispanicamerican) didn't know what language is someone spoken it's said that it's talking greek, griego in spanish (Griego -> Gringo)...I'm from Chile and I've never heard that in my life...in my case if I don't know what language is someone talking I say "gringo", not "griego"...(although what I really say is "ke weá", but...yeah...
Chilean here. I use 'estadounidense' in spanish and 'US american' in english.
@Forgotten User Fair, but yeah a lot of people in South America say "estadounidense" and understand that as a North American.
@Forgotten User im not saying its right, its just the usual term for that
@Forgotten User yeah why not, north americans fit right in english, but if sometimes you are in a spanish country or talking in a spanish language for reasons xD, it gonna take more than you comment to change that becuase its the right term in that language , but hey i gonna do it, because you want be call like that, and im talking in english too, so here you got my north american fellow
@Forgotten User yep, USA is a country on North America
@Forgotten User but just throwing ideas here, if we combined the two maybe... we can call it... hear me out... Super america or Mega america or America plus, maybe thats taken (?) xD names are difficult xD
I'm from Costa Rica, we call the people from the US estadounidense and the country Estados Unidos. Americano for us, means someone from the American continent.
if you say it makes sense to call people from North America "northern/north Americans" and people from South America "southern/south Americans", you have a point, however in the US, those terms are also used for those living in the northern and southern ends of the country, so it's hard to make that point.
In Polish, every single country has 2 demonyms. 1 an adjective for things from the country using the -ski (masculine)/-ska (feminine)/-skie (neuter) suffix (the gender depends of the gender of the noun following) which is the only thing in Polish that 100% regular and a noun for the people of the country which there's lots of suffixes used.
8:02 , From Perú here, I feel like "Estadounidense" is the most used, because we're also Americans, Latinamericans specifically (which, by the way, I think is a term that some spanish people might have a problem with maybe?)
Tbh this problem just happens to be about the fact that the Americans got to name themselves and were the only ones to choose the name after the general continent. However at this point it's so entrenched that even foreigners know it as "America" and it gets displayed that way on at least a few maps. Most states actually do have longer names (the Russian federation off the top of my head) and then get shortened to whatever is the prime word. Thus "America" is in use all around the world except in some parts of Latin America who feel a bit salty and Italy (possibly due to lingual proximity).
Regardless of what continental model anyone follows, it doesn't automatically make América a country & 'American' a term only for the U.S.A.🇺🇲!👍
América definitely is not a country or a nation. Therefore, 'American' isn't a nationality, a citizenship, or a term exclusively for the U.S.A.🇺🇲
Anyone who uses these terms as such is due to selfishness, ignorance, conceitedness, laziness, stubbornness, indoctrination, and/or arrogance!
Furthermore, an American is from the Continent of América!👍
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 has a simple, basic, generic, & descriptive name that's easy to comprehend & not misinterpret in any way or language!
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 simply means we are STATES, that are UNITED, on the Continent 'OF' AMÉRICA!
Not América of the United States!!!😏
It's what our Founding Fathers & authors meant, and still means!👍
Greetings from the U.S.A.🇺🇲, an American from the Continent of América!
English is my 1st language!
AMÉRICA 🌎🌎🌎 🇲🇽🇧🇷🇨🇴🇦🇷🇨🇦🇵🇪🇻🇪🇨🇱🇪🇨🇬🇹🇧🇴🇭🇹🇨🇺🇩🇴🇭🇳🇵🇾🇸🇻🇳🇮🇺🇲🇨🇷🇵🇦🇺🇾🇯🇲🇹🇹🇬🇾🇸🇷🇧🇿🇧🇸🇧🇧🇱🇨🇬🇩🇻🇨🇦🇬🇩🇲🇰🇳
United States of AMÉRICA 🇺🇲
An American is from the Continent of América.
We are ALL Americans!!!
I approve this message.👍
Hopefully that'll help!👍
@@CaptainAmerica001 Perhaps but, unless other nations have the same influence no son Americanos. They have their own estados sus pais. It's ridiculous to call Colombians Americans, they are very patriotic and won't accept that. Mexico is a wild card, the official name is EUM or Mexico. But... again not enough clout. Also, the patriotic symbolism is Mexico has her own culture.
It's wayyyyyyy too late to claim America. She's here since 1776.
@@ErikPT
😁
'America', in the official name of the United States of America 🇺🇲, has represented a continent for the past 246yrs, even 269yrs before the USA 🇺🇲 existed.
The Continent of America🌎 was named 515yrs ago.
In London it gets quite tricky and in many cases it's simpler to go the extra mile explaining a person's background in detail. If someone is black but born and raised in rural England, are they English? Yes and no, culturally yes but ethnically no. And also where does being a British start? I'm a Hungarian living here for four years, am I British? When did or will I become one? I can pronounce bottle of water the British way, does that count?
Well, it's not that difficult. British is everyone that borns in the British isles, so technically you will never be British, and that black person will be 100% British, even if he don't speak English and you do.
@@Omouja I'm going to get citizenship in two years so in some sense I will be British.
If someone is born and raised in the UK I wouldn't be surprised if they identify as British and if you have citizenship you're British even if people have a problem with that. Even if you never become a citizen if you're not planning on leaving you can identify as British.
@@mysteriousDSF oh, yeah true. The citizenship
in latam (mainly in mexico), we often use the word "gringo", despite nobody knowing exactly where it came from
But isn't gringo just for white americans? Do you call black Americans and Latin Americans gringos too?
@@whosaidthat84yeah, I don’t know where the idea of “gringo” being used only for white people or even as a racial slur came from, it may be because depending on context it can have a derogatory meaning, which may make some people associate it with words like the n-word, yellow, or whitey, which are used exclusively to describe someone for their race, and not their nationality.
The Mexican-American War.
Mexican here.
The term estadounidense/norteamericano is only used in a formal way or when comunicating in a written form. Un any other scenario the common demonym is "gringo/gringa" (male/female).
Fun fact: a "gringa" is also the name of a popular street food here in México.
"Gringo" is a racial slur. How about we start calling people from Latin American countries "B3aners” or “w3tbacks”
Well it'd be like saying that people over in the UK should really be called 'United Kingdomians' or whatever but since it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain, we call them the British. The Irish still live in the 'British Isles', but because it has also a more specific name, we refer to it as such. Which is why there called 'South Americans', or even more specifically by their countries' name. And given we are the only nation in the Americas to call back to our geographic region (just like the British aren't the only nation in the British Isles; but are the only group to refer to this geography); I'd say it's all very fair.
well, people from the Netherlands _are_ also called "Netherlanders" in addition to "Dutch" :P
Yeah but nobody calls them that
Holland??
@@korelamerikano
Holland is actually 2 provinces of the Netherlands.
@@modmaker7617 I know, but their football national went all the way with Holland, so it stuck in our heads for so many time, that this whole country wan Holland
@@korelamerikano
It looks like now the national football team is called the Netherlands not Holland.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_national_football_team
I’m from The United States of America 🇺🇸. @NameExplain I politely disagree with you when you say that Americans (USA) shouldn’t be called Americans. People from North America are North Americans not just Americans. The people from South America are South Americans not just Americans. The term Yankee/ Yank/Yanks only referrers to Americans who live in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
Technically they shouldn’t even be called American since current day Americans are just British people while the native Americans are the ones who should be referred to as such
@@Epsilon-5 Don't go down that rabbit hole if we go all the way back were all Africans.
@@pokegod99 yep, where do those people draw the line when they bring up that point. Do they also consider Ukraine as part of Russia since it used to be Russia territory. Do they consider parts of Russia as parts of China since it used to be China territory. That’s the problem with those people, they cherry pick which land belongs to who based off who they like and dislike.
I am also from the United States 🇺🇲 👉OF👈 America 🌎.
There's nothing wrong with calling us Americans.
An American is from the Continent of America.
The issue arises when folks say we're the only ones or it's a citizenship/nationality.
In Spain, we commonly use “Estadounidense” (and some people also use “Norteamericano/a”) to refer to US Nationals, and “Americano/a” to refer to any person from any country of the Americas. Also, we generally consider North America and South America as a single continent (conveniently named “América”)
It was Spain who called British Americans or Americans when they u.s was still a colony
Total !!! Bueno en venezuela es igual , nosotros sabemos q el contienente es America, asi como tu al ser español del continente europeo ( series europeo ) yo seria americana , el problemq es qie los gringos , como que no entienden la logica y solo agarran lo qie le.dijeron a los 5 años
Entonces uno les intenta exlicar con logica y siguen y siguen hasta que te aburres y los dejas en su terquedad
@@axxel_o Lo que estás explicando (que es mayoritariamente cierto, por desgracia), es una ideología que el gobierno de Estados Unidos trató de imponer en todo el continente americano, para forzar la emancipación de territorios coloniales europeos, y ver si podían colonizarlos EEUU. Se llamó la “doctrina Monroe” (por el entonces presidente de EEUU), y vio cómo Cuba, Puerto Rico y la zona del Canal de Panamá se convirtieron en territorios vinculados a EEUU. Es como si decidieran apropiarse de todo un continente, sólo porque llevan el nombre del continente en el de su país. Por eso creo que se hacen llamar “americanos”, y como el nivel de cultura general en dicho país está, de media, por debajo de la media europea, no hay forma de convencerles de lo contrario a lo que ellos creen. Es mejor no perder el tiempo con esas cosas.
Debo, no obstante, reconocer que hay casos concretos de estadounidenses que son bastante cultos en el aspecto. Es probable que, si el autor de este vídeo tuviese el mismo nivel de cultura general que la mayoría de los estadounidenses, ni se hubiera planteado dicha cuestión.
América es un continente único; Venezuela es un país maravilloso, y su gente es excepcional. Saludos desde España.
7:57 Mexican here and no, "estadounidense" IS by far the most used.
Here a Mexican, in the schools of Mexico (and from what I can see, in all Hispanic America), they refer to the "Americas" in a single continent.
"North America" and "South America" are subcontinents within the continent of America (Central America would be considered a "region" within North America, but it is not considered another subcontinent of America).
And indeed, we refer to people from the US as "Gringos" informally or "Estado unidense" as formal talk.
I used to call people from the US "Americans", but one day I had to argue with a Gringo who presumed to be from "America" and I from "Beans Land" (Mexico) (I really did not give importance to his discrimination). Anyway, I told him that I am also from America and the guy just made fun of it and then I realized that in the US they teach geography in a totally different way than the rest of the American continent.
We cannot consider "North American" either because just like the US, there is also Canada and Mexico and it can only be used when we talk to people from South America, Europe, etc. to locate them from which part of the American continent we are foreigners.
Or people living in the Americas can be called North American or South Anerican, based on the continent they are from.Also, Mexico's full name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos. (United Mexican States) and at one time Colombia was Estados Unidos de Colobia. So the USA is not the only country with United States in its name.
Yeah Europeans don’t really know many things or culture from this continent.
Don't be ridiculous, in Spanish America is one continent, in English there are two, plus Mexico is a very personal adjective, no one on the continent calls themselves that.
South America, Central America, North America, The Americas, Latin America, Anglo America, Franco-America.
All those names have something in common and it is the word america.
@@sergiojose2000 Absolutely. In Spanish it is viewed as one continent. This is a discussion about how Americans refer to themselves in English. When I am speaking Spanish, I will follow Spanish conventions. It's pretty ethnocentric to demand almost every other language on the planet stops calling Americans American (or some variation there of) just because your language uses it as a catch all for anyone living in any of The Americas.
American Alligator - Only exists in the U.S.
American Rhea - Exists in South America
It's so confusing!
Puertorican here, for pretty much my entire life living in the island ive seen that almost everyone here refers to americans as either "Americano" or just good ol' "Gringo". Norte Americano is usually used to only refer to Canada & USA, though Estadounidense is also widely used, I'd say Americano or Gringo is a lot more commonly used.
I’d prefer Virginian or Appalachian honestly, but I’m indeed American. Claiming I’m form the US isn’t very descriptive either, when your also such and someone doesn’t need to think hard to find a difference between the average red neck and a Puertorican.
Well, too bad that only North American refers to the USA and Canada when Mexico also belongs within North America... Greenland is also North American but due to the fact that they are not completely an independent country, it could be said that they continue to consider themselves "Europeans" for the Kingdom of Denmark, but the day they become completely independent from Denmark, will the USA consider Greenland as North American?
As citizens of the United States of America, Puerto Ricans can also be rightly called Americans.
@@daviddorsett7550
No, 'American' is not a citizenship.
An American is from the Continent of America.
Puerto Rico is not on the Continent of America.
Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean & is on the Caribbean Plate.
Tectonic plates are not continents.
@@CaptainAmerica001What? Puerto Rico is definitely in the continent of America. The Caribbean Plate is not a continent... it's just a tectonic plate.
Interestingly enough, the word French actually does use the -ish suffix, just it has been evolved and reduced to not look like it has it. It's equivalent to Frank + -ish. It evolved from Proto-West Germanic Frankisk > Old English Frenċisċ > Middle English Frenche > Modern English French. Same with Dutch, which evolved from Proto-West Germanic Þiudisk > Old Dutch Thiudisc and Old Low German Thiudisk > Middle Dutch Duutsch and Middle Low German Düdesch > Middle English Duch > Modern English Dutch
Btw if ur not from the U.S.A. you can just call yourself North/South American
Then there's Latin American for everyone south of The United States
Heck some even go so far as to use Central American
But American will belong to the U.S.A. until the country changes names to something else which won't happen
There is no reason for them to change and they will never change it because nobody else identifies themselves as American unless they're from the only country that actually uses it in their name
[EDIT]
I saw this on another comment and thought it was really nice
Pan-American
If you refuse to acknowledge the fact there's 2 continents and say it's all just 1 big America then Pan-American is for you
Pan-American refers to being from the entire American continent but not from the country of America
On another note, what is to be said for the names of nationalities not tied to the suffix rule? Like, there's the term polish people, but you can also use the term Pole or Polack to refer to someone of that heritage. Also, I've never heard Kazhakstani used in phrase, but I have heard Kazhak.
Here in Brasil its depends on context.
Even more because in portuguese is impolite to repeat words in a frase, so we vary very often the terms. Thus, if there is no risk of mistakes, we surely will use American, as in: "o presidente americano" (the American president).
But in the most of cases, there is a possible mistake, so we just avoid it by saying "o presidente dos Estados Unidos" (the president of united states). It is the most common form.
But, in fact, we never call the country as América, is aways just Estados Unidos and everyone know and use de term estadunidense.
Summarizing:
If Joe Biden came to Brazil the journalist will say it on television:
"O presidente dos Estados Unidos veio ao país e foi recebido pelo homônimo brasileiro" (the US president came to our country and was welcome by his Brazilian homonym)
If Lula gone to US we will never say:
"O presidente do Brasil foi aos Estados Unidos e foi recebido pelo homônimo dos Estados Unidos" (the president of Brazil gone to US and was welcome by homonym of US).
Is sound much childish or as a joke, so in this case you may hear:
"O presidente do Brasil foi aos Estados Unidos e foi recebido pelo homônimo americano" (the president of Brazil gone to US and was welcome by American homonym).
Interesting that you never talked about Asia. It's a huge diverse continent, but "Asian" usually refers to South East Asians.
Or East Asians for that matter.
In Colombia people from the US are called gringos casually, and Estadounidenses formally. Americanos is not really used that much.
Me, I was born in Haiti therefore I'm Haitian-American this is how I always refer to myself.
Dutch people actually do call themselves “Nederlanders” it’s just in foreign languages that they’re called “dutch”, or “holandais”.
I think here in Mexico most of the time we refer to USA people as “estado unidense” (at least here at México city), but a funny exception for me it’s when I refer to USA products such as cars or the classic “café americano” that I can’t help using that demonym.
X2 Como ropa americana.
Here in Brasil we normaly use "Americano", because we are so used to it, but recently, mainly younger people, have been using "Estadunidense" a lot more, making it easier to diferrenciate from the rest of the continent. In recent years our people have been praising the USA a lot less, making it inevitable to start using diffent denonyms for its people.
Brazilian here. When we talk about people born in the US, we use the word "americano" (male) or "americana" (female) most often, although "estadunidense" is also widely used, but less frequently.
One may think that, because the word "americano" is used, we also use the term "América" to refer to the USA, but, oddly enough, that's not true at all. "América" refers to the continent made up of North America+South America, and we never use this word to refer to the USA, instead we say "Estados Unidos" or the abbreviation EUA. It's like using the word "magyar" to talk about people from Hungary but not calling the country "magyaria" or something like that
I'm from Chile and this was interesting when I was a child and i ask my cousin who is Australian if there is another 'name' for American people but he didn't know. Now I know.
By the way yes we in Latin America always call 'Americans' estadounidenses, or gringos in a friendly way (depending of the people )
There's actually another North American country who's official name includes the United States, the United Mexican States.
Americans aren't Canadians or Mexicans.
The term just works historically. Unless you're from New England, you aren't a Yankee. And frankly, I only consider WASP and Scots Irish New Englander is to be Yankees.
And yet here in the USA we typically refer to ourselves bu the state which we hail from. I.E. Some one from Florida will often refer to themselves as a Floridian, someone from Washington State will refer to themselves as a Washingtonian, someone from Hawaii would refer to themselves as Hawaiian and if they where of Polynesian decent they would be Native Hawaiian, ect. But probably the best example of this is Puerto Rico. They are citizens of the USA because they are a territory. But they more often then not call themselves Puerto Rican.
Puerto Rico is a dependency of America and it is not a state like the others because there are only 50 states and not 51 states!
@@Adrian4239 if you read what I wrote you would see that I didn't call them a state but a territory.
This is largely when talking to other Americans from different parts of the country not as a general rule of thumb
I can't use the word Georgian to describe myself without confusion. The state by state solution was one notable exception.
Georgia is also a country below Russia, it's the exact same issue but you don't care because the group of people is smaller and more remote.
@@badomen7199 Of course there's a Georgia south of Russia. There has to be more than one Georgia to cause the above mentioned confusion. As far as me not caring, you read your own bs into that. Though considering you could read my statement and assume I don't know about the much older Georgia, it looks like you can barely read at all.
@@donavonaddison4382 I don't think you got the point, the point is it's the exact same issue, there's really no moral difference between referring to yourself as Georgian or American, I get it if you don't care, but a lot of people don't even know the country exists, and I thought you may have been trying to say that referring to yourself via state was better than country, either way works. Btw wdym bs, is it bs that I don't care? What are you even saying is bs, I wrote a good amount.
@@badomen7199their is a moral difference, our language recognizes Georgia as country, we dont recognize anyone else in the world as americans besides ourselves, an american will never think of a Brazilian as American, because in english they aren't an american, they are a south american which is a continent.
Your the culture imperialist here trying to force spanish/Portuguese culture onto americans because you dislike what they call themselves. In english only people from usa can be americans because only we exist in a place called America, their are no other americans only north and south americans.
bro I posted this a year ago, I have no recollection of the video or argument to refute anything you say, nor a desire to rewatch all of it. I have no idea why you decided to scroll what had to be many minutes through the comments, only to arrive on this year old comment, and decide to argue with it@@damackabet.4611
In Spanish "gringo/a" is used colloquially, and "estadounidense" or "norteamericano/a" is used in formal contexts. "Americano" is sometimes used with industrial goods made in the US, specially cars.
In Spanish speaking countries the 6 continents model is more commonly used, in which America is a single continent composed of the subcontinents of North and South America, so the word "americano/a" refers to the inhabitants of the whole landmass. Used in contrast to Spain, "América" and 'americano/a" may refers only to the Spanish speaking part. There are popular songs that use the word in that sense, eg. "Si somos americanos" written by Rolando Alarcón, and "América", singed by Nino Bravo.
yep there are some really interesting demonyms, for example my family is from El Salvador in Central America, However El Salvador in our language of spanish just means "The Savior" in reference to the Messiah in Christianity (yep it's overall a religious country) and so the Demonym is Salvadoran which if literally translated into english would be like Savioran but yea and in the states I notice us bilingual speakers sometimes colloquially call our selves Salvi to be brief
So you don't call it El Salvador?
10:00
Even using the state demonym instead of national poses some redundancies. Since DC is its own territory there are two different Washingtonians. Georgia has a similar issue with the country of the same name.
Why don’t we just call people from DC Colombians…
…oh
Actually in Italian ''Americans" are also refered as "statunitensi" (from the United States) but is less common.
In Argentina we use "estadounidense". We also use "yanki" but only in casual speech. I'll understand "norteamericano" because it's common in Latin American dubs (probably it fits lip sync better) but we don't really use it, and to me it sounds more like someone from the US, Canada or Mexico
I think a big difference is that when Americans say "United States of America" they interpret it as meaning "there's is a place called America which works as a union of states" while in Latam it's interpreted as "there is a union of states in the American continent", which is still ambiguous as there are other unions in the continent
Let me clear this up for you.
My mother is Dutch.
My father is Blackfoot.
My fiance is Jewish.
All of us are Americans, because we are from and/or live in the USA.
Even if I've never encountered anyone who wants to (both because of national pride and the often negative perception of the term internationally) someone from Canada or Paraguay is free to call themselves American if they want, because words frequently have multiple definitions.
I think you're the only one with a problem here.
Yeah and besides, I'd HATE to call someone a unitedstatesian XD
@@flannelsone1159 it just sound stupid. Europeans just trying to find stupid things to criticize America about.
I feel that you have a huge problem reading book of history and geography , really use your brain is free
No I’m afraid we aren’t “all American”. To be an American you must be a racial descendant of the European settlers
@@jackdools4744 us blacks were here before most of you whites came on boats
The word "Statian" is also used for someone from the island of Sint Eustatius, aka Statia.
I have apprciated FLW's "Usonian" (as you mentioned - but I pronounce it all together "you-SEW-knee-an"). He used the term American to refer to Native American people and culture. Part of the issue is that prior to the Civil War - citizens of the United States referred to themselves by their State of origin. We had New Yorkers, Georgians, Virginians etc.. An exception would be if you came from one of the 6 New England states -- you might call yourself a "Yankee". (This term too is used differently relative to to where you live - but that is a whole other ball of wax which, no doubt, you have made a video on). Before the Civil War the term American was used -- but not as much. The War changed people's idea of themselves.
side note when you ask someone from lets say Cuba. you think that if you ask their nationality they'll say "American" no because they are Cuban so they'll say Cuban. a person from the USA will say American because of how well they are from the USA
As a mexican I can confirm that "Estadounidense" is the correct and common demonyn used in spanish, but the most common colloquial one we use (at least in México) is "Gringo". The legend I've heard of how that demonyn originated states that the term comes from the 1848's US invation of Mexico where the US Army had green uniforms so people shouted at them "Greens go!" so that they went away from our country and then it evolved to "Gringo"
Here in Mexico and in other Latin American countries we are taught in school that there are 5 continenets: America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. So we mostly don't like US-citizens being refered as "American" because we all consider ourselves from the continent.
@Forgotten User Mexico is officialy called "United Mexican States", which is no the same.
LOL taking Spanish seriously
@Forgotten User I know, but in spanish no one calls MExico that way and USA in spanish is literlly "Estados Unidos". If you say "América" in an spanish speaking country most likely they'll think you are talking about the continent.
You're a north American not an American
My wife is from Mexico and they call us Gringos and Gabachos. And they often refer to the US as "el Gabacho" or "the other side" (el otro lado).
Unironically she probably hates you. In America gringo is a slur In places like California
@@angellara7040 You don't understand Mexicans if you think that. Most of the "Mexicans" in LA are actually gringos trying to differentiate themselves to maintain an identity. They're kind of their own thing. If a Mexican friend who I know well calls me a gringo, I 100% know it's not malicious. It's all about your relationship with the person. They call their own kids things like "fatty," "big head," etc and it's all love. They're way less thin skinned than we are.
@@ScottJB I'm Mexican jackass. Shut it gringo
@@angellara7040 Cálmate un chingo, pochito
Estonian here. In our language, the formal name of the country is "Ameerika Ühendriigid", which is a direct translation of "United States of America". We can formally also use the acronym "USA". In casual speech, we most often use words "ameerika" for the country and "ameeriklased" for the people. We might also use terms "usa" and "usakad", which derive from the acronym but are pronounced as a single word.
Here's my opinion about "americans shouldn't be called americans" issue. The term "american" is so common that everyone understands that it refers to people from united states. Are canadians and brazilians offended that they are not called americans? You might introduce another term, but it's not easy to make people stop using a term that is already in use.
The USA🇺🇲 is not an acronym. An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words AND pronounced as a word like UNICEF, NASA, SAW, etc.
Canadians & Brasilians DO call themselves Americans.
America is not a country.
An American is from the Continent of America.
When I was younger I asked this same question and no one can answer me. They said it just is. Thank you for this.
Regardless of what continental model anyone follows, it doesn't automatically make América a country & 'American' a term only for the U.S.A.🇺🇲!👍
América definitely is not a country or a nation. Therefore, 'American' isn't a nationality, a citizenship, or a term exclusively for the U.S.A.🇺🇲
Anyone who uses these terms as such is due to selfishness, ignorance, conceitedness, laziness, stubbornness, indoctrination, and/or arrogance!
Furthermore, an American is from the Continent of América!👍
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 has a simple, basic, generic, & descriptive name that's easy to comprehend & not misinterpret in any way or language!
The United States of América/America (U.S.A.)🇺🇲 simply means we are STATES, that are UNITED, on the Continent 'OF' AMÉRICA!
Not América of the United States!!!😏
It's what our Founding Fathers & authors meant, and still means!👍
Greetings from the U.S.A.🇺🇲, an American from the Continent of América!
English is my 1st language!
AMÉRICA 🌎🌎🌎 🇲🇽🇧🇷🇨🇴🇦🇷🇨🇦🇵🇪🇻🇪🇨🇱🇪🇨🇬🇹🇧🇴🇭🇹🇨🇺🇩🇴🇭🇳🇵🇾🇸🇻🇳🇮🇺🇲🇨🇷🇵🇦🇺🇾🇯🇲🇹🇹🇬🇾🇸🇷🇧🇿🇧🇸🇧🇧🇱🇨🇬🇩🇻🇨🇦🇬🇩🇲🇰🇳
United States of AMÉRICA 🇺🇲
An American is from the Continent of América.
We are ALL Americans!!!
I approve this message.👍
Hopefully that'll help!👍
My proposal as a human from the United States of America is that people and thngs from my country be called "Murican." Some people already say " 'Murican" with a thick Southern accent as a joke, but my proposal is to just say it naturally in your normal accent. Honestly, it's close enough that we could easily make the switch, and it's a word we already identify with. Plus it's different enough that in context there's no confusing if you mean either of the continents or the country.
thats actually a good idea
It will be a long day in hell before I use backward Southern terminology to label what I am.
@@chaost4544 exactly😂. Doesn’t matter though, these people can cry all they want but it isn’t going to change the fact that most of the world will think of people from the USA when they hear the word American. That’s why they always calling Americans stupid and shit, they see people from the USA as American.
I'm down for being an Usonian or an US-American, and since I'm from West Virginia I'm also technically an Appalachian.
Your also technically a southerner, though your still a bit different to the southerners further south in usa. So Appalachian sounds about right.
I was once told by a friend in Honduras that American referred to both continents and that as a person from the United States I should be called Estadounedense. It still makes me laugh. And I had a teacher from Massachusetts who said the correct term for people from that state was Bay Stater.
America is not a country or a nation. Since it's neither of those, 'American' is not a nationality, a citizenship or a term exclusively for/from the USA 🇺🇲.
Furthermore, an American is from the Continent of America 🌎👍
'Estadounidense' is a direct & accurate translation of the official citizenship of the United States of America 🇺🇲.
Estado(State)Unido(United)Ense(Inhabitant, resident, citizen of the region or area)
Estadounidense = U.S. Citizen
Officially 👍
@@CaptainAmerica001 well like I told my friend, the mythological single continent of America is actually two continents not one, North and South America so we refer to people from those continents as North and South Americans or Central Americans. And no one in the United States would ever consider themselves as a Unitedstatesian when American works just fine. I mean Mexico is technically the United States of Mexico but no one calls them Unitedstatesians. And no one calls people from Brazil Federal Republicans even though their country is technically called the Federal Republic of Brazil.
@@Jimmys_Place
*Estados Unidos Mexicanos!
Mexican United States or United Mexican States!
You have America confused with Atlantis😁
Kinda like confusing the USA🇺🇲 for a continent or the Continent of America 🌎 for a country!😏
What does 'America' represent in the official name of the United States of America 🇺🇲?
What does "Mexicanos" represent in the official name, 'Estados Unidos Mexicanos'?
What does "Brasil" represent in the official name, 'Federal Republic of Brasil'?
@@CaptainAmerica001 would it make you feel better if we had named our country the United States of North America? After all these United States ain't on any other continents. Lol.
@@Jimmys_Place
What would make me feel better is for people to quit being selfish, ignorant, conceited, lazy, stubborn, help from being indoctrinated, and/or arrogant about the 2 terms.
But can you answer the simple questions, especially the 1st one?😁
"What does 'America' represent in the official name of the United States of America 🇺🇲?
What does "Mexicanos" represent in the official name, 'Estados Unidos Mexicanos'?
What does "Brasil" represent in the official name, 'Federal Republic of Brasil'?"
Valid argument. I think American is a fitting term for two reasons: size and influence. And for the record I live in the U.S. Europe is about the size of the U.S., give or take, eh? One denonym fits for a region of that size with subdivisions as appropriate (states or countries as appropriate). Because the U.S. is so different from other coubtries on North and South America, rarely does anybody refer to the people of the continent(s) collectively in common usage. There's just no need. But Europe is composed of (and this is from my perspective as an American) a bunch of socalist states that share a lot in common. European and American denote the same sort of grouping of things under a similar heading, performing a similar function. And also worth considering, not to denounce the contributions of other countries in the Americas (notice I'm not calling them American but using a prepositional phrase instead), the U.S. is rhe #1 country (obvious satire) with the biggest economy and greatest political influence of all the countries on our continent. At least that's how we are portrayed by ourselves (sorry Canada).
I'm from Honduras and we were taught in school that the land mass from Alaska to Argentina is known as America.
These are the continents:
America
Europe
Asia
Africa
Oceania
Antarctica
Now America is subdivided into three regions:
North America
Middle America (Central America and the Caribbean)
South America
You were tought wrong there are two continents south and north America
@@everettatwater2939 There are many ways to define continents. Look at Europe, which depends on a historical and cultural definition to be a continent apart from Asia, given that there are no different landmasses based on tectonic plates.
The name "America", as a single continent, obviously precedes both logically and historically the subdivision into "North" and "South" (mostly based on the tectonic plates division of landmasses) , but also transcendes it, as in the terms "Native Americans", "Latin America" or "Organization of American States", which encompasses peoples, countries and States from both North and South Americas.
If you consider the Americas as one continent why don’t you consider Afroeurasia as one continent?
@@user-id4oi3hl7b On the contrary.
The division into "North" and "South" America is based mostly on tectonic plates landmasses (althought not 100% accurate, i.e. Caribbean plate, etc), while considering them a single continent is mostly a Historical approach (as in New World).
In the same way, we differentiate Europe from Asia from a Historical/cultural perspective. If based on lamdmasses and tectonics, we should consider most (of not all) of Eurasia a a single continent.
It is all in the definitions.
@@user-id4oi3hl7b The difference between Europe and Asia is a matter culture and geography.
The Ural Mountains separate Europe and Asia while America is one uninterrupted land mass.
I think a big issue is us Americans don't relate ourselves to a continent, but a country. Personally, I find it odd to relate yourselves as being from a continent and not a country. Even for Europe, there may be some things many or all European countries share but I wouldn't think of any person/group as "being European" (if I didn't know their country/accent but knew it was from Europe I might then). Culturally Central and South America do share a lot of culture being of Portuguese/ Spanish descent and the native cultures were mixed in which was a practice of those Empires but under the British. The US and Canada share a nearly identical culture, which annoys many Canadians because they lose their identity and are assumed to be Americans. Because there is only one country on the continent we have so much in common with and they don't call themselves Americans it's just not something we think about-we are also a continent-sized country.
Furthermore, other demonyms just seem awkward and weird in English. I should add I find it a bit insulting for other people outside my country to tell me what I can and cannot call myself, us being so powerful and influential doesn't give others the right to tell us what to do just like my country shouldn't do to others. If other languages/people have other terms and simply use those it's fine, but to demand American English needs to change is not ok.
I can't speak for everyone, but I don't think there's any problem with people from the US calling themselves "americans". What I would argue some people have an issue with is when they don't recognize that the term can also apply, in a different context, to people from the entire continent. And that's probably the primary reason that people from Latin America have other terms for USA citizens: trying to avoid confusion, not so much that we find that use of "american" blasfemous or something.
For context, I'm from Brazil
@@SuicV sure I get that but it often comes across here in the US as “bad dumb white peoples are racist for using the term American”. Which is why people get resentful.
@@markbollinger1343 I'm also Brazilian, and I wouldn't say that people see Americans as "Bad, Racist,Dumb White Americans" just for using the term American as a denomyn for themselves, but when we see Americans not acknowledging that everyone else on the Americas are also Americans, we can see them as egotistical, self-centered Narcissistic egomaniacs", tô put it lightly.... specially because people are afraid of being culturally consumed by American cultural imperialism across the continent
This comment is awesome. *LOIKE OIM IN AWWWEEE M8*
@@markbollinger1343 Nah, I'm more resentful for other things the US did and does, the demonym thing is just the easiest to talk about and correct
In Spanish, persons of the Americas are innuendo as noramericanos, suramericanos, and centro americanos. You went over that detail as I was typing this comment, though it's actually incomplete. Persons of individual states or nations (as you're stating now when I'm typing this) can be called by their state or country--bolivanos or ecuadoros or colombanos, etc, and of course Canadians have their own demonym. I like this topic, because it's a slightly different approach to the topic. Thinking is usually a good thing, right?
I got a better idea for a demonym for the Japanese to use for the US:
Usajin, from "Usa", short form of "Usagi", and from the phonetic way to pronounce the United States of America's acronym, USA.
I honestly just like this idea because it's punny.
As an American, I accept being called a rabbit
I love it ❤️ A huge bonus because it is a pun.
Sailor Moon!
If you call a Scottish person British they will get angry.
Not as angry as the Irish :p
Really? That's interesting. I was aware Scottish people get angry when ignorant people use England and UK interchangeably, understandably so, but at the end of the day Scots are part of the Great Britain, thus British.
@@tohfawalker159 which Irish?
As well they should!
@@themeltedchocolate I once online called a Scottish man British and he became angry at me. :)
Well it’s better than being called United Statesian
French people: Sweats nervously.
@@lightningfletch5598 Umm... That's almost every Romance language.
What about United Stater?
How about Fredonian or Stateser?
What about the term "Vespucian", in tribute to "Amerigo Vespuci" from whom "America" is derived? That way, "Americans" would still be named after the continent, but cause less misunderstandings with Latin Americans and people outside the Americas.
In Italy there is the term "statunitense" to refer to us-americans