Maybe this is a regional thing but I’ve always called it the US
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I use “the U.S.” or “States”.
There’s more than one America.
But not more States…?
I refer to it as “the US”, but refer to myself as an “American.”
I’m a US citizen and lived there most of my life but refuse to call myself American. I’d rather call myself after my home state or country of birth, It’s an embarrassment.
Helps that I live abroad though
To add to the confusion. The Americas (or America) comprise the landmasses of North and South America in the Western Hemisphere
People living in North and South America (or the Americas) can also be called American or Americans if the were referring to the landmass.
Strangely the United States IMO is the only country that seems to indicate the landmass its situated on when using the full name, the United States of America. Not the mention the indication of a union of individual states.
Several single-word English alternatives have been suggested over time, for example Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, and United Stater.
Saying someone is a United Statesian or Statesian is probably the closest to how other countries like Canada (Canadian) or Mexico (Mexican) refer to themselves.
Vespucciland -> Vespuccian.
You do know it is actually named “the United Mexican States”, right? The name of the US is simply bad from the beginning and sometimes you can’t fix bad. Unless they take over all of the Americas, I guess. Then it’s a good name. Bad move, but good name.
That’s wild what a plot twist
Thats’s cuz English Language sucks.
In Chinese Language for example: A 美國人 (American (Country)) and a 美洲人 (American (Continent)). But in English both are “American”.
Also so many syllabels converying so few info.
Literally 4 syllabels for “American”
But “美國人” or “美洲人” are both 3 syllabels and already contains [America-Country Person] or [America-Continent Person]
Sorry, no offense to English speakers, but as a polyglot, I just had to comment this xD
All languages convey information at roughly similar rates. Those with less information per syllable tend to say more syllables per minute. It’s a fascinating area of linguistics!
All natural languages have ambiguities where the meaning of a word depends on context due to changes over time.
Call us Yankees because it’ll annoy the “the South will rise again” crowd
Several single-word English alternatives have been suggested
Some of these make sense, but several of them would only refer to a specific area in the U.S. (e.g. Washingtonian) or are really out of left field (e.g. Fredonian).
I’m assuming Washingtonian would be refering to the man, not the state that refers to the man. I mean, it’s a silly name, but not for the reason you state.
I heard in a podcast recently that many people in the US still believed Africa was a country, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this is somehow related to their using the name of their continent to designate their own country.
I feel I hear “The states,” “The US,” and “America” equally used here in Cali.
I say “the US”
“This is America! I’ll call it whatever I want!”
I use America a lot
Safe to just call it shithole now.
In my country you can know someone’s politics just by knowing if they call people from the USA americanos or estadounidenses.
estadounidenses
people actually use this in conversation?
When they aren’t USA bootlickers.
ps: This is Portuguese. US is Estados Unidos.
Oh I understand the word, it just seems like a lot of syllables.
I’ll call it “the US” at the beginning of a conversation but mix it in with America afterwards as the context shows I’m talking about the US and not the continent.
Red Green calls us “americans”, i call us fucked. Take your pick.
That’s just not true.
I’ve noticed this too but it seems like a left vs right thing. But never “the USA”
In Canada we usually refer to you guys as “the States”
Hello neighbor! Very interesting because down here we call ya’ll “the Northern Folk”
That sounds badass I like it
I use both as well as USA and united states.
It’s a question of shorthand and relative distance to the country. In most European languages, the spelling equivalent of America refers to the country by default. The continent as an entity doesn’t get mentioned that much and when it does either context gets you there or a regional attribute like a cardinal direction or central. In my experience this applies to British English as well. “The United States” is often more cumbersome in translation and might require grammatical inflection when used in a local language - and confusingly could refer to Mexico as well. Funny enough though some languages adopted “USA” as another way to refer to the country, even if in translation this should get you a different letter combination.
Because of the dominance of the English in the United Kingdom, a lot of continental Europeans lazily refer to the UK as their version of “England.” Might be Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, a channel island or what have you. We gave up in trying to distinguish. People and how they call places are like that. Quiet understanding beats accuracy.
I use them interchangeably. 🤷
US Americans seem to refer to themselves as “Americans” a lot on social media. Or they refer to themselves as “the world” like in “this icecream is the best in the world” (without having visited any other country for a significant time to be able to compare). In Europe, US Americans are referred to by different names: the ver popular „yanks“, the German “Amis” (die spinnen doch, die Amis), depends on the country. The prevalence of new names is increasing rapidly, e.g. Trumpists, US twerks, dropkicks.
US Americans seem to refer to themselves as “Americans” a lot on social media.
There isn’t really a better demonym, and certainly none in common usage… USians? US-American (as you mentioned)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States
Really? So no one ever anywhere but the US uses the exaggeration ‘best in the world’? Get off it.
You sorta had me in the first half, and there is definitely lots of criticism for US treating say….online spaces as an extension of the US, but you chose to go with ‘greatest in the world ice cream’ as the example? I mean, sure.
The irony of saying that only the US uses hyperbole
