Well, everybody born in the american continent is technically “american” too, including Central and South America. Is there a specific term in english for these people?
'Murican 🇺🇸🍔🍺🏈🗽
“American” is the official name, though throughout history attempts have been made to find alternatives. You can read more on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States
The only officially and commonly used alternative for referring to the people of the United States in English is to refer to them as citizens of that country.[18] Another alternative is US-American,[19] also spelled US American.
Several single-word English alternatives for American have been suggested over time, especially Usonian, popularized by architect Frank Lloyd Wright,[20] and the nonce term United-Statesian.[21]
Writer H. L. Mencken collected a number of proposals from between 1789 and 1939, finding terms including Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, and United Stater.[22] Names for broader categories include terms such as Western Hemispherian, New Worlder, and North Atlantican.[23][24][25]
Nevertheless, no alternative to “American” is common in English.[18]
Nonce term?? Does that mean something different where you are?
That sentence stumped me too, really weird wording. Apparently it means “rare, seldom used” in US English.
Edit: just checked Urban Dictionary and welp, I didn’t foresee the British slang meaning o_O
I’m definitely going to start using Usonian. It seems the most natural. We probably can’t use Colombian because… you know…that’s a country already haha
Yankee (or Yank) is a colloquial term for Americans in English; cognates can be found in other languages. Within the United States, Yankee usually refers to people specifically from New England or the Northern United States, though it has been applied to Americans in general since the 18th century, especially by the British.[26] The earliest recorded use in this context is in a 1784 letter by Horatio Nelson.[26]
I might start calling Americans Yankees
If you call people in the Southern US a Yankee it won’t end well for you.
A “US-American” if you need to be very clear. But most people just say “American”.
In french you can say états-unien and you might translate it as States-nan
In Italian “statunitensi”, i.e. United States people
In Germany we call them “US-Amerikaner”.
formally yes, but most people I know just say “Ami”
Which is Latin for “friend” 😊
And a woman’s name in America
I’ve only seen it spelled “Amy” or “Aimee” here.
Eighmmeeh
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Estadounidenses
Thats Mexico I think.
The word I use most often aside from American is Seppo, which is derogatory rhyming slang (sep + -o, from septic tank → Yank → Yankee)
I’ve heard this in Australia but nowhere else. Is this Australian slang, or does somewhere else use it too?
NZ and UK use it too. I think I first learned it from a Brit.
yank
There’s not a clear and conscience alternative to “American.” If you’re trying to differentiate us from other people from the Americas you’d just say US Citizen. And while yes the entirety of this hemisphere is some variation of America be it North, Central, or South the other countries here have distinct names and we really don’t.
At the risk of sounding like a typical US asshole, here goes nothing. This is how I’ve explained it to friends from Europe and it seemed to help.
If Brazil had decided to go by the name “United States of Brazil” we would still call them Brazilians because there is another country with the title “United States” that also exists. Similar to how we call people from the Peoples Republic of China, Chinese. We don’t call them “People’s Republicans” because that’s a title not a unique identifier or name. What if that same country decided to go by the name the Peoples Republic of Asia instead, would we call them Peoples Republicans or would we call them Asians?
The title “United States” is telling you that this area is united together and the borders represent states, not country’s. “America” tells you where those united states are, the continent of America. The term “American” is generalized and honestly doesn’t accurately represent the vast cultural differences within the United States. The states often have their own rights and laws separate from the US government and also unique cultures. Ideally we would be called by our states name for its citizens like Californian or New Yorker, for example. Similar to how you would refer to people from Europe as European unless you wanted to be specific to Italy, then you’d say Italian. But sometimes you need a general term, hence “American.”
All that being said, it is problematic and a massive reminder of this country’s bloodthirsty and genocidal colonization of a large part of North America. Looking at the country’s past shows that they were very much trying to also get central and south America as part of the United States. What better way to propagandize and make it look like they had every right to the rest of the Americas than to make it appear as though this country or that country already was America and therefore should be part of these United States? But however problematic it is this is the name we have now, for better or worse.
As an addendum of sorts. We Indigenous Americans would often much rather be called by the names of our sovereign Nations yet everyone calls us Native American. Why is that? Food for thought that might help with understanding the problematic struggle we have here. It’s not simply us as citizens that perpetuate the issue, it’s a global colonization effort whether the others realize they are participating or not. (Spoiler: they realize)
tldr: because colonization + United States is a title not a name
First off, thank you for your great response.
And yeah, I kinda get that “United States” is just a title, but in my native language (portuguese) we have a specific word for americans: “estadunidense”, which basically means “person born in the USA”
I was just wondering if there was a similar word in english that could be used specifically to these people, just like we have in portuguese. But again, thanks for your answer.
Also, fun fact: Brazil was actually called “United States of Brazil” for a short period, and our flag looked like a copy of yours, but in yellow and green. But then our king (thankfully) decided to go just by “Brazil”
That’s so interesting! I didn’t know that Brazil was also a “United States.”
I wish that there was a name for US Citizens in the same way but with English being such a shit show combination of too many different languages, I don’t know if that’ll be possible. The only way I see it happening is if the US just “adopts” a word from someone else’s culture, that’s usually how English gets a new word or term.
I didn’t know that Brazil was also a “United States.”
They’re not; they were using that as an example. They’re actually officially called the Federative Republic of Brazil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil?wprov=sfla1).
Edit: They used to be, though. See below comments.
Yes, we used to be.
Source: I’m Brazilian
Huh… I stand corrected.
Sorry about that. 👍
I knew one that was called “Doug”. I’m not sure how much of a generalisation one can make from that though, but it seemed to work for him.
I mean you can try and call them by their state but really we’re just American. And we’re selfish enough we claim it exclusively and let other countries in the americas go by their country name or add extra details to the America term
In Australia we call them cunts.
Normally just say American, but if it matters I’ll say USAan
Gringo or gabacho.
I usually respond to “Hey stupid”, maybe try that?
Don’t actually try this.
