• PunnyName@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Quick question: what is the demonym (a word used to identify people who are from a particular place) of the people from the USA?

      • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        In the opposite way that when saying Asians no one thinks of Russians, no one thinks of Chileans when you say Americans.

      • Scivolemulo@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        I think “US-American” is the most accurate, least controversial, and most grammatically correct one there is 😅

      • BambiDiego@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        According to English speakers who didn’t understand the proper meaning of words like “continent,” it’s “Americans.” It’s stuck around now though.

        According to most other languages and nations who use more accurate descriptors, it’s closer to “Statesman.” You know, people from the ‘United States’

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          15 hours ago

          Pretending to more grammatically correct and calling it “statesman.” lol. We all live in states, whether you’re in the united states of America or not, unless you live in some kind of anarchist or libertarian commune in the ocean or something.

          Language is made up. The term used to refer to people from the USA in English is American essentially everywhere. It doesn’t define anything. That’s just the word used, and that’s OK. For example, ketchup isn’t a fermented fish sauce either, despite the original word possibly meaning that, but you likely wouldn’t complain about that, because we all know what it means and that’s the word we’ve decided to use for it.

          • BambiDiego@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Like I said, English speakers. English isn’t the only language, and in most other languages it’s closer to Statesman.

            As I stated in a comment below, it’s like having the one friend who burst into the room and declaring himself ‘the Bossman guy’ and every other nation in the world was like "okay Kyle, we’ll call you the Bossman Guy since your parents are rich and you’re a violent bully and we don’t want to fight you on your identity issues.

            And yes, language is always evolving, that’s how it works.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              3 hours ago

              Like I said, English speakers.

              And we’re speaking English…

              The demonym for a German in English is German, despite it being Deutsch in German. Is this an issue?

              As I stated in a comment below, it’s like having the one friend who burst into the room and declaring himself ‘the Bossman guy’ and every other nation in the world was like "okay Kyle, we’ll call you the Bossman Guy since your parents are rich and you’re a violent bully and we don’t want to fight you on your identity issues.

              No one is telling other language speakers what to say. I English it’s the dymonym of someone from the USA is American though, and it has been for a very long time, before it was even the nation of the USA, when it was still “British America.” it wasn’t force or violence that made it happen, and that makes you look very ignorant. It shows your clearly just making this stand as some anti-america (which I have problems with too) position, not from an actual position of logic and reason.

              Again, we all live in states, so how is statesman any less confusing than American? It’s arguably significantly worse as it implies membership to far more people than it actually includes.

              • BambiDiego@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                I’m not anti-america.

                This is the same thing as when people get upset about saying ‘chai tea’ or ‘hound dog’

                It was originally something else, people from a certain place used it differently, and now it’s its own word. I was being snarky, I myself use ‘American,’ at the end of the day, who cares?

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  2 hours ago

                  I’m not anti-america.

                  Fair enough. There’s a lot of tankie here that make the same argument as you, but because they just hate the US. Their preferred term is usually USAsian though, so maybe I should have recognized you weren’t one of them.

        • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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          2 days ago

          Typical nationalist South American, doesn’t understand that there are countless continental models and none is more correct than the others but still demands English speakers use their languages meaning.

          How about you stop being such a nationalistic little colonial cunt and enforcing your language on others?

          • BambiDiego@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            I mean, if you looked at my post history to see I was born in South America you’d have seen that I refer to myself as an American, like from the US.

            That being said, using words incorrectly like “nationalist,” especially “nationalist South American,” which according to your fee-fees is a continent, not a nation, just goes to prove the point I made.

            Also “colonial.” You’re just throwing buzzwords without understanding them, or rather, you’re just throwing words without understanding them.

            I was clearly being snarky about it, language is ever flowing, changing, and contradicting itself with words such as ‘napron’ into ‘apron,’ ‘metaphorically’ into ‘literally,’ or the thousands of borrowed words that mean what they are like ‘hound dog’ and ‘chai tea.’

            How about you stop being so blindly sensitive to someone making a sensible point about the only language you know and maybe laugh at yourself a little.

            When someone says it’s stupid that in Spanish cars are male and clouds are female I don’t clutch my pearls, I laugh and agree that it’s stupid.

          • lovelily
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            1 day ago

            the typical hispanic noun for someone from the usa is still “american” lil bro, nobody is enforcing anything. at least not from this side of the pond, anyways

            • BambiDiego@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              No it’s not, it’s “Estadounidense.”

              “Estados Unidos” is United States, and “-ense” is a suffix referring to origin or belonging.

              I never said enforcing, it’s more like Americans are the one friend who bought themselves a leather jacket, burst into the room, pulled down their sunglasses and said “you can now call me… The Bossman Guy” and everyone else rolled their eyes and said sure

              So now everyone calls them The Bossman Guy even though he’s not even the boss

              • lovelily
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                1 day ago

                you werent the one who mentioned anything about enforcing though, so i wasnt referring to you

                and yes, im aware of “estadounidense”, but in most translations/localizations ive seen nowadays “americano” or “americana” is used, too, which is the same as american, because the thing has been around so long that cultural globalization just made it the new standard

                of course, colloquially speaking we just call them “gringos” more often than not, for the same language reasons they call themselves ‘americans’. difference being who is the neocolonialist lmao but, i digress

    • lemmyman@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Here in Murica the colloquial meaning of an unqualified “America” is “the United States of America” its just the way we speak ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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      2 days ago

      South America is South America, not America.

      So yes, technically the first American pope. Not the first Pope from the Americas.

        • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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          2 days ago

          Yes? He’s both from the country of America and from the continent of North America.

          This is very basic English, it shouldn’t be blowing your mind.

          • DrownedRats@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Hes the second American pope. America refers to both north and south america. The United States of America only referes to a part of America.

            He may be the first north american pope and the first pope from the united states of america, but hes not the first american pope.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              15 hours ago

              America(s) refers to that, yes. American is basically always used to refer to people from the USA. I can tell by the careful wording that you are aware of this and just trying to be pedantic and annoying, which I don’t understand, but I guess you get a kick out of it.

              There are lots of words that describe things that dint match their original meaning anymore. I used the example ketchup a minute ago. It probably came from a word meaning a fermented fish sauce, yet it isn’t that anymore. Should we change the name, or is the fact we all understand it to mean a sweet tomato based sauce (unless stated otherwise) a good enough reason to keep going as we are?

            • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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              2 days ago

              No.

              We follow a different continental model than you do that separates them into two different continents of North America and South America.

              • DrownedRats@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Which continental model you use here is entirely irrelevant anyway because in neither model is north america referred to as just “america”. The only time that just “America” is used is to refer to the union of north and south america.

                There is no country of America. There is the united states of america which would make the pope a statesman. So you can have the first north american pope, the first statesman pope, or just settle for second american pope.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  15 hours ago

                  Stop being annoying. You’re changing words around to fit your message. We’re referring to American, not America. That might be a confusing distinction to make for you, but sometimes the meaning of words don’t exactly follow their etymology.

                • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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                  2 days ago

                  What??? Of course we dont call North America simply America, why would you even think that was an argument I was making? That goes against everything I’ve said.

                  And there is a country of America, it’s the United States of America. No one calls Germans from the Federal Republic of Germany - Federalisians, same goes for anywhere else including America.

                  • TheMetaleek@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 day ago

                    Actually, literally the entire world excepted the US does call them “United States of America”, if not only “United States”, with traductions of those. The French use “États-Unis”, often not specifying America, as do the Spanish speaking world with “Estados unidos”. And, yeah, we often just say “Germany”, 'cause Germany doesn’t try to appropriately the name for the entirety of the continent they sit on, like that one weirdo country does.

      • Voyajer@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        “American” is the official demonym of the United States but people here will fight you on that for whatever reason.