submitted 1 month ago by NahMarcas@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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From Spain here, when we want to speak about USA people we use the term "yankee" or "gringo" rather than "american" cause our americans arent from USA, that terms are correct or mean other things?

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[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 1 month ago

The reason for this is simple: the word in English is "American". Because in English speaking countries, it is almost universally the case that we talk about the 7 continents. And in the rare case we talk about 6 continents, it's from merging Europe and Asia (which, frankly, is blatantly a far superior model of the continents), not merging North America and South America.

So "America" unambiguously refers to the country, and there's no need for estadounidense, any more than there's a need for "commonwealthian" for someone from the Commonwealth of Australia.

[-] thisisbutaname@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 month ago

What about Canada?

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think the point the previous user is getting at is that there is no continent of "America" in most English-speaking countries—there is North America and South America.

Canada is in North America but it's not in "America," which without the North/South prefix, will make most English-speaking people assume you mean the US and not the continent Canada and the US are on.

[-] mattyroses@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 month ago

They're just Americans anyways

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

What about it?

this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025

66 points (93.4% liked)

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