The United States is the only country in the world that does not have a gentile for itself. They call themselves citizens of the continent that they share with other countries, seeming to appropriate the entire continent.
It’s one of those things that made sense at the time, but looks a little weird if you don’t account for the history.
Folks living in the British colonies wanted to differentiate themselves from the English, so they called themselves “Americans” because they were in the “American colonies.”
The name stuck after the colonies became the United States.
At the time it was the only “country” on the continent. There were people actually arguing for not including the “of America” too, so it would just be “United States”
I like the spanish demonym for those of us from the United States: estadounidense. If you were to translate it literally it’d be like unitedstatesian, like brazilian (braziliense)
It makes a lot more sense if you look back at what the colonies were called when the name was adopted. It’s really just a holdover from a naming solution that wasn’t very weird during the time that it was introduced. Language evolves in weird and funky ways.
The United States is the only country in the world that does not have a gentile for itself. They call themselves citizens of the continent that they share with other countries, seeming to appropriate the entire continent.
It’s one of those things that made sense at the time, but looks a little weird if you don’t account for the history.
Folks living in the British colonies wanted to differentiate themselves from the English, so they called themselves “Americans” because they were in the “American colonies.”
The name stuck after the colonies became the United States.
At the time it was the only “country” on the continent. There were people actually arguing for not including the “of America” too, so it would just be “United States”
I like the spanish demonym for those of us from the United States: estadounidense. If you were to translate it literally it’d be like unitedstatesian, like brazilian (braziliense)
Same thing in French : États uniens, États uniennes
So do French call themselves Republicans instead of French?
Id love to hear someone from Kentucky take a crack at that one
Oh god, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep a straight face if someone pronounced that with a southern drawl.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Xe2MbMxuUuY
Esta-dooni-dense
It’s a very American thing to do.
It makes a lot more sense if you look back at what the colonies were called when the name was adopted. It’s really just a holdover from a naming solution that wasn’t very weird during the time that it was introduced. Language evolves in weird and funky ways.
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