• 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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      8 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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      13 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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        7 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.

      • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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        1 day 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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          24 hours 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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            23 hours 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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              23 hours 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