How do you call someone born in the US besides "American"?
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?
Edit: Thanks for all your answers, especially the wholesome ones and those patient enough to explain it thoroughly. Since we (South Americans) and you (North Americans) use different models/conventions of continent boundaries, it makes sense for you to go by "Americans", while it doesn't for us.
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
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.
One way around it is just to say "I'm from the US". I know it's not quite what you asked but based on what everyone else has said about why we're simply "Americans" then I suggest this as an alternative. Also like they said, referring to yourself by state of residence works too, for instance "Texan" or "Californian" since they're basically just as well known as the US itself at this point.
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.
You dont have to make up an example. Mexico's real name is United states of Mexico, and we call it mexico and Mexicans.
Source: am mexican
(And I hate Americans as much as the average person)
I would argue against the annexation on central and south American and this would be purely a pedantic note.they want a hegemonic influence but not the responsibility of dominion over latin america. For instance They had backed an early coupe against mx that dethroned French backed mx emperor and conquered mx not too long after. They did not annex mexico. They backed a coupe to separate panama from its previous governing body, wrote extremely factorable terms for the canal, did not annex panama. Backed revolt against Spain in Puerto Rico and Cuba and didn't annex either. Backed militants in Nicaragua and didn't annex. Basically they want the resources but not want to build and maintain the roads, schools, police. Which is in my opinion is different than a complete land grab.
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]
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]
Do it, it’s probably the best option really. Feel free to call us Yanks too. Unlike the others proposed it’s one where any of us will know what you mean
everybody born in the american continent is technically “american” too
The implied context of your question is in English.. In the English-speaking world, there is no American continent. People from North America are North Americans; people from South America are South Americans. People from the United States of America are American. There is no ambiguity. There is also no good term to collectively describe everyone from the Americas but there’s also rarely any need to discuss that.
I consider terms such as “USonian” and whatnot to be highly offensive. Nobody should tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language just because the same word means something else in another language. It would be like telling French people they’re not allowed to call their arm a bras because it refers to an article of clothing in English. Other languages where America means something else already have their own terms for people from the US. English, however, has no real ambiguity except that caused by those trying to shame Americans for calling themselves Americans.
Telling people what they're allowed to be offended by is usually a bad choice.
Let em call me whatever they want in whatever language they have.
That's not what this is about though, which is precisely the point. In other languages, "America" means something else, and they all have other terms to refer to people from the US. The whole discussion is about what Americans should be called in English.
In the English-speaking world, there is no American continent.
I didn't know that, thanks.
Nobody should tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language
Look man, I'm not american and I didn't ask the question to create some debate about the ethics or whatsoever. I just wanted to know if there was a specific word for that.
Just to be clear, I didn't think that you were being offensive. It came across entirely as a good faith question from a foreigner, but it ties into (ironically arrogant) advocacy from some foreigners who call Americans arrogant for using the term American.
People from North America are North Americans; people from South America are South Americans. People from the United States of America are American. There is no ambiguity.
Thank you for eloquently responding to the pedantry underlying OP's question.
No, it's the entire English-speaking world, which actually makes sense since the practice originated with the British Empire long before American independence.
This is about language, not geology. Doesn't really matter how it came to be that way, North and South America are effectively treated as separate continents and very rarely referred to as a whole, and you saying "but actually" doesn't change that.
Outside, a Yankee is a Yankee, even if they're cosplaying a ghost while standing in front of a burning cross and waving a confederate flag. We don't care enough to ask in which state they had the misfortune of being born. 🤷♂️
Only in the US. In the rest of the English-speaking world many people don't know or don't care about these differences and it's just a blanket term for all Americans.
So they should call them American Americans, or Americericans for short; like I talk about English English because calling it British English implies Scots talk the same way.
I've never had to differentiate before like I have in this conversation. I think I would say "US Americans" since it seems to adopt other languages calling us something like United Statesans without creating an odd word like Statesans.
North and South America are so big and diverse that there's really no usage for the term "American" being used to refer to everyone on both continents. US just took the term for themselves and no one really cared enough to complain
US residents are not Americans. They can identify all they want but it doesn't make it true.
I might relate to Americans on many things but unless I move there and become a citizen I'll never be American.
I don't disagree with your second sentence though. Considering that some US citizens inherited their citizenship from their parents but never lived there for prolonged periods of time. For them, being a US citizen is just a technicality.
Language rules (in English at least) are descriptive not prescriptive. They try to explain why Americans are called Americans, not determine what they're called. They're called Americans, whether or not it's logical, or the ideal descriptor, or fits with other names, that's what they're called.
Also most English speaking countries don't have an "American" continent, they have North and South America as separate continents, so you would say someone is North or South American to refer to the continent, not just American. Similar to how some people consider Eurasia a single continent but very few people would identify as Eurasian.
It's debatable that North and South America are separate continents. I prefer the continental plate system but some countries literally teach that there is an "American" continent that includes both landmasses.
They also typically merge Europe and Asia, which is absolutely the right thing to do regardless.
The reason you have this disagreement is that there simply isn't a good, concise definition of "continent," and because at the end of the day it only matters for semantics and racism.
So the number of continents in the world is between 5 to 7, all debatably correct, depending on who you ask.
Possibly even 4 if you want to get particularly spicy and say any large, connected landmass is a single continent, merging Africa, Europe, and Asia into a single entity.
Which is also a more valid take than "Europe is its own continent because white people live there."
Edit: I forgot to mention the Indian homies are more deserving of a continent than Europe, thanks to having their own tectonic plate.
Tl;DR the world has 4-8 continents, but it is typically taught as anywhere from 5-7, it just depends on how actually consistent you want to be with your rules for what defines a continent, and 7 is just straight up the scientifically worst option unless India is recognized as a separate continent from Eurasia.
To add a bit of context, it isn't arrogance or something that drives us to use "American" as a demonym, it's just the linguistic norm. I don't find any of the other names offensive (except seppo, but that one is meant to offend me), but most of us would probably do a double take at the term "USican" or "USian." Virtually all of us would accept Yankee.
Further reading: the full name of Mexico is the United Mexican States. If we wanted to be pedantic, we could say that using the reference to the US would be ambiguous, as they too are technically a US.
The simple answer is really, no. Colloquially if you say "American" you're talking about someone from the USA. We'll further segregate ourselves into the States we're from, which isn't that different a distinction between "European" and "German".
Honestly, Yankee is probably the best. Some southerners won’t like it, and westerners will probably be confused, but we all know it means American and it’s the only real term for one of us that doesn’t lend the question “and why do we call you this and not people from the United States of Mexico this”. Our country’s name is unfortunately extremely generic.
Southerners use this term pejoratively sometimes. I wouldn't assume every person is actually cool with it.
It always annoys me to be called a yank because my family is northern but I lived in the South for a while as a kid and they weren't calling me a Yankee to be nice or fun. A lot of southerners are still butthurt about losing the US civil war and get tribalistic about it.
The sovereign people of any nation have a right to call themselves what they please. People of the US decided on 'American' long before the Internet was a thing and Latin America people got pissed off. US intervention in Latin America is a stain in history, but this is categorically dumb. US citizens call themselves Americans because it's in the name. Literally. Canadians don't call themselves Americans and never will. This is dumb argument. Respectfully.
First off, this wasn't supposed to be an argument, just a question. My native language has a specific word for them (and some other languages have too) and I got curious if english itself had such a thing.
Latin America people got pissed off
Maybe it's because people say "America" and everybody instantly thinks of the USA, even though you're just another country in the whole continent? For these people you are stealing the word "american" and changing its meaning. People from Asia have the word "asian", people in Europe got "european", people in Africa got "african", but we? We don't have a meaningful word anymore. And I'm not saying it's your fault or even it's a fault of your founding fathers. I'm just trying to tell you why these people get mad.
There is no continent called "America". We have North America and South America.
When someone says "South American" I don't think Alabama I think Brazil or Argentina.
The term "North American" is commonly used when you're describing something that applies to both Canada and the US. Eg. "North American sports teams".
We commonly use the term "Central American" when referring to Mexico, El Salvador, etc. because even though they are technically in North America there is a strong cultural divide, similar to how the middle East is technically Asia, but you'd never refer to someone from Saudi Arabia as "Asian".
If most people say Korea they mean South Korea. That's because North Korea is far less likely the thing to be referenced, so you need to go out of your way to specify North if you actually mean that instead of South.
Do South and Central American words not exist in spanish? Soy de Sudamérica. Soy de Centroamérica. As the other comment said, this question is not ambiguous at all. And I know why people get mad, they hate the US, which I understand because they're assholes. No one will deny it. Ask any self respecting american and they will agree.
But with all due respect, this is a dumb ass question. Respectfully.
Canadians actually emphasize north American culture when they talk about stuff they've got in common with us as opposed to trying to make "united statesian" work like the Spanish speakers
Y en español les decimos estadounidenses. Porque son los putos Estados Unidos, y se la calan porque los cabrones no tienen la decencia de ser amables con sus vecinos.
Puedo harcerte una pregunta? si eres de mexico, te llamarias americano? Querrias hacerlo? Soy de los Estados Unidos y no me importa si te llamas americano, pero no se por que querrias. Yo diria que "soy norteamericano" o "soy latinoamericano".
(Lo siento si mi espanol es malo, estoy aprendiendo).
It goes back to the colonies. In the British Empire the continental colonies were "the American colonies," so British subjects from said colonies were called "Americans" for upwards of 200 years prior to the revolution. After the revolution, since Halifax was the only major continental port that remained in British hands, it made sense to call its colonists something else, while those to the south retained the name "Americans."
Conversely, the Caribbean possessions were called "The West Indies" or "The West Indies Station."
It's always been funny to me when latin Americans get pissy at the term American being used to describe the country who's president is Biden ( said with love as mx) . They always try to correct Americans to "estados unidenses" United Statean. Which in my opinion doesn't work for 3 reasons. First name recognition most of the world associate Americans with 'merica. 2nd it's a difficult set of words for Anglo speakers especially vs Americano. Thirdly there are actually 2 countries thats proper name include "United States" those are united states of American and United States of Mexico, who colloquially are known as America and Mexico respectively.
But you've got "Mexican" and "Brazilian" for both of those countries that include United States in their proper names.
I'd continue to say "United statean" in Spanish because that's an accepted name in the Spanish language. There's no confusion to what country you're referring to.
But in English it is a lost battle. If you mean to include people from the entire continent, you'd have to say "American, as in the continent".
Edit: The current official name of Brazil is Federative Republic of Brazil.
America is 2 continents, it'd be easier to say North American/South American. There is rarely a reason to lump both continents together. No one refers to people from Europe or Asia as Eurasians
As an American, I don't really give a crap what nationality someone calls me as long as they're not being rude. I honestly identify as a Floridian anyway. So, even if I met other Americans overseas, I'd think of them as from their state or cultural area (Plains, Appalachia, Southwest, etc.).
I don't expect people outside of the US to know the difference even though the US supposedly dominates the world with media. I don't know much about the vast majority of other countries, including England. All I know is that people from Liverpool are apparently bollocks...whatever that means.
It also really bothers me that they get to coin the whole American term when it's a terrible representation of America as a continent, the USA doesn't really even have a proper name, it's a description, kinda like calling a dog Dog. Mexico's full name is actually Mexican United States of America.
I personally call them united-statesian when the word gringo doesn't fit the context, which is the translation of estadounidense from Spanish. But it's so stupid because whatever you call them applies to so many more people than just them because they don't have a name! And their states are not really that united.
We need to change our name to Some United States of America and the Pacific and also Caribbean and Oceania Territories (SUSAPCOT), which could be turned into Susapcotians.
Hi! I'm a Susapcotian 😁 <- big stereotypical Susapcotian smile
While technically correct, I've never heard a Brazilian refer to themselves as "American" when they intended to mean South American. Linguistically, when you say "American" you're talking about a citizen of the United States, not just any person from the western hemisphere. And if you're talking about a specific continent (North America, Central America, South America) you're going to be specific about it. A Brazilian would say "I'm South American" when referring to their continent.
Brazil considers the Americas to be a single continent, with south/north being subdivisions. A lot of people here don't understand that usa's actual name is America just like the continent, so they often get mad when the word American is used to refer to people from the USA instead of from anywhere in the americas.
I feel like I've never even heard someone say it like that either. Maybe it's just my bubble but I never hear people refer to themselves by their continent except maybe occasionally Europeans.
and you have to sing it in tune to use this term correctly.
To answer your question seriously: As a Canadian, I'd say "...from the States" to describe an American.
Bonus: "our Southern neighbours" is the polite term I use when something stupid happens in the US and I'm hoping and praying Canada can ward off that part of culture making its way here.
Second, those of us in North and South America refer to ourselves as such. Canadians are North Americans, not Americans.
Third, Americans are usually referred to as Yankees or Yanks outside of America, much like the English are referred to as Poms and the Canadians referred to as Canucks.
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
To be fair, American is the most notable part of the United States of America's country name. Calling them Unitedians would be silly, particularly with how prevalent 'United' is in full country names.
This is one of the reasons Americans will often identify themselves as a citizen of their state or even city. They say they're Texan or a New Yorker, for example.
It can come off as conceited, as it's not reasonable to expect non-Americans to have a perfect knowledge of US geography, but it helps the sentences flow and is more accurate/specific than just 'American.'
Learn about the states and call them by their state name like we do in the US: (washingtonians, oregonians, californians, and so on.)
Internationally people love making fun of Americans for knowing little about geography, but it's always a bit surprising to find out how little people in other countries know about US geography considering many of our states are bigger (size-wise) than many entire countries.
Ok but there’s 50 and most are basically interchangeable to anyone not from there. The difference between Indiana and Illinois to basically anyone not in or bordering them is one has Chicago and the other doesn’t. And those are two of the most politically different states due to the aforementioned Chicago. Cleveland may as well be in Michigan for all some random German has any reason to care. It matters to them as much as it matters to me which kingdom Bonn was in. And which Dakota is which, as an Ohioan not only do I not know, I also don’t care. Oklahoma is basically texas and Wyoming is a national park with a state of disgrace stapled on. And that’s not even getting into the mess of New England.
I don’t expect French people to know which one Ohio is and I’m not gonna be mad if they don’t know of it, in the same way I know of Bordeaux but have no idea where it is beyond somewhere in France. I know a handful of Mexican states so I suppose they probably know of the big ones and the bordering ones
Why would ppl from other countries know the internal division of the US. Thats like asking ppl to know brazillian regions. Or russian ones, or Chinese ones. Those are equally big countries but ppl are not expected to know those internal borders and names.
People make fun of Americans not only because they were ignorant of global geography, but also because they didnt generally show much interest in it. It is a response to american exceptiolism i think. Making fun of those that think that the USA is the best country and all that really matters.
Still i dont find making fun of Americans for that very funny. Specially because its not that true anymore.
Yes however the United States was the first modern nation to gain it's independence in the Americas. In the English speaking world that's the term, you can't just make up a new term for ut
Can’t we though? All language is arbitrary at first. A person (or community) often names things, sometimes from pure scratch. The words “Kodak” and “Xerox” come to mind.
Yes a community create a name that becomes used over time. However it has implications farther than just that. African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, are all very common terms for different people in the country by taking away that term, the names for many groups change as well. The fact is in English so many groups use the term, and every single one would have to change how they identify themselves for such a change. I don't believe that is possible.
I have never heard anyone refer to themselves as American the way people refer to themselves as European. It's really not a thing so there is literally zero confusion when you call a citizen of the USA an American.
I know a lot of people from central/south america that are mad about that and they make a comment whenever you say "american." They prefer the term "estadounidense" which is just someone who is from the USA.
I don't blame them because it is pretty self centered especially whenever there are two whole ass continents that term could apply to, but I don't think get the anger around it lol.
US Citizen. It's the simplest and most accurate. There are plenty of people living in the US who are not citizens, but anyone born here is automatically a US Citizen, no matter who their parents are. It's another one of the half-decent things about this country the far-right Republicans would like to get rid of.
Oh interesting, it's because they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, ie they have diplomatic immunity. But they can register to become a legal permanent resident.
Can you say "Diplomatic Immunity" without the sneer and accent from Lethal Weapon 2?
Frankly, I'm not seeing any negative replies or downvotes.
I'm a US citizen myself, though I live in and am also a born citizen of Norway. So being in basically a quantum superposition between being and not being a US-American, you could imagine that I'd have a bit of a specific perspective about the country, that would draw me to using words like "Seppo".
There is no such thing as "the American continent". North America is a continent. South America is a continent. Central America is the region connecting the two. Collectively, these are "The Americas", not "America".
I cannot think of an adjective to describe someone born on a line extending from Anchorage to Cabo San Pablo.
Can you provide an adjective to describe someone born on a line extending from Oslo to Cape Town?
Which continent would central american countries then belong to?
To answer OP's question, I'd say that US citizens are being referred to as "Americans", because the name of the country is "United States of America". Every other country on the north or south American continent has its own distinguished name, which can be used to refer to its citizens, e.g. "Canadians" or "Mexicans" etc.
Parts of Central America are on the North American plate, parts are on the South American plate. The dividing line between the two is the isthmus of Panama. Central America is a region, not a continent.
Similarly, Europe and Africa are two different continents, with the Mediterranean region between them.
I cannot think of a word to describe individuals from Europe, the Mediterranean, or Africa. I cannot think of a word to describe individuals from North, Central or South America.
People from Canada, Mexico and South America are not technically “Americans” because none of them have “America” in the name of their country, whereas we do. In fact, it’s the only word in the name of our country that uniquely identifies us. We’re just called Americans because it’s realistically the only name we could have. If other countries that already have their own names take issue with that, they should have done something about it before we chose the name United States of America.
Stick with "American" because not only is it partially accurate geographically, it's completely accurate in terms of how self-centered we are as a nation as to think we're the only ones who count.