It's a term people use to either be funny, or it's because they're somehow offended that people from USA use the demonym "American" even though there are other countries in the Americas, yet despite the fact that no one else in those countries seems to care because they have their own demonyms they use.
The former are just having a laugh, and the latter are looking for things to be offended by.
I don't know which camp the GP falls into but I'll be charitable and assume they're just being silly.
I don't think you know many people from Latin America. A lot of them will absolutely not like American to refer to the USA only. Especially as the USA imperialism has done so much damage in many places there. It is not as strong as say the Macedonian debate but it is very real.
That may be the case, you're not wrong about what the US has done in Latin America. That said, I've never in my life heard anyone from Latin America call themselves American. Now that's just my experience, so I'm open to being proven wrong.
When I lived in Costa Rica for a time, I was only ever "Americano" and everyone from there were "ticos" or "costarricense." Though to be fair, Costa Rica has pretty much been spared of American meddling.
Well I for one (born in Venezuela and moved to Italy) used to be mildly annoyed when italians used the term "americano" to refer people from USA, and used to tell them "I'm also american". In Venezuela I used "estadounidense" [1] and in italian it would be "statunintense" the proper form, but almost nobody uses it.
Now I'm used to it and don't mind it anymore and this is the first time I've heard of the term USAian and find it quite amousing but I don't think it will catch on.
America isn't a continent. We have North America and South America. We typically refer to the grouping of those two continents as 'The Americas', but not America. At least not that I've ever seen.
In the U.S. we do 7. Maybe in Venezuela or Brasil they do 5?
I guess that's one of the things that confuses me here. If you're from Europe you can be European because that's the continent you're from. If you're from Canada you can be Canadian or North American, but you can't be American because that's not a continent. I mean I guess you technically can, but it's a bit of a lossy term to use. It isn't specific enough. Do people from Bangladesh or Pakistan think of themselves as Asian, or Pakistani?
I guess as I see some of this discussion, it strikes me as very arbitrary and resentful, and also not very consistent.
> USAian and find it quite amousing but I don't think it will catch on.
Yea I saw it and had to do a double take because I thought it was USAsian. I think at least in English it won't catch on because it doesn't flow very well.
In East Asia, but especially in Taiwan, Japan and China, people from the USA are usually called American. Normally, when asked, I state I’m from California or the US.
I think it’s just a language thing here. It’s easier to say America than it is to say USA or United States.
I’m sure Canadians and others get quite annoyed from that.
I usually say the same. I’m from X or I’m from the United States.
If you’re Canadian you’d say I’m from North America, not America. If you’re from Brazil you’d say you’re from South America. The same would be true of Americans. You’d say you’re from North America. That’s the continent. If you are going to go down that route.
Do Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, and others really consider themselves of the region of the Americas and not from one of the two continents? I just don’t get the organizational structure that’s used. You wouldn’t say you’re American, that’s for sure. You’d say you’re north or South American.
Yes, in my Latam country they taught us there were 5 continents: America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. However, we call ourselves latinos or something else, really.
You and the people of Latin America are making a language category error though. The people of Latin America speak Spanish (and perhaps Portugese), and the Spanish word "America" means what it does in Spanish. But in English, the word "America" refers to the USA. It doesn't make sense to complain about words in other languages that you don't speak.
You acknowledge what America means when you use the English word "Americas" to refer to the regions within North and South America, because in English that is the word to use and has the other meaning.
The same logic applies to "football", btw. The vast majority of English speaking people refer to soccer as soccer. That people who speak other languages use a word in their language that sounds like "football" to refer to soccer does not give them standing to sound off on what Australians, Americans, and Canadians call soccer. There is room for the British to bicker about it, but they are a distinct minority among English speakers.
In Brazil is usual to hear in more educated circles the denomination "estadunidense", which is essentially the same thing as USAian. Or north-americans, when talking about the culture from the standpoint of Brazilians.
It's far from true that no one cares.
The former are just having a laugh, and the latter are looking for things to be offended by.
I don't know which camp the GP falls into but I'll be charitable and assume they're just being silly.