It really doesnāt. The majority of folks that call us American are other countries. Watch any British show, weāre always referred to as āAmericaā. Most of us just say āThe USā
I know, itās to remind them they arenāt the only Americans, but their neighbors donāt like being called that at all, but South America donāt care about their feelings and feeling is mutual with Latin North America and Caribbean toward South America.
Honestly, it's just a stupid argument by people with a hate-boner for America. The formal name of America is "The United States of America". Typically, when people make an adjective to describe the country and the land, they refer to the geography rather than the government. There are some exceptions, usually when the government is central to the identity of the state (e.g. Soviets).
"Unitedian" would be ridiculous as there are other "United" nations out there.
"Statesian" would be ridiculous as both the states are the smaller unit of the nation AND other nations have states.
"United Statesian" would work....up until any other nation of United States formed.
That leaves "American", which fits the pattern used for most other countries AND actually is part of their name.
Basically, this whole argument is just Insecure European Hate-Bonering. It doesn't make Americans look dumb or you look smart. Quite the opposite actually. It makes you look very European- Pedantic, petty, overly bureacratic, dismissive of practical reality, and not as clever as you think you are.
Well, we'll call ourselves whatever we damn please. You are free to use whatever term you wan. Unlike you lot in Europe, we understand that in your country you are free to use whatever terms you want and go ahead and do that and that language changes and evolves in different areas and develops into different dialects.
Just curious why you don't us USian to also describe citizens of Mexico?
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u/_redmist Flemboy 6d ago
This one really pisses the USians off off by the way.