I recently came a across someone
harping on how clueless people from the United States are for calling
themselves Americans because America describes two entire continents and what
right do we have to monopolize the word blah blah blah. This was in the comments section of a cooking video, of
all places. This tired, old chestnut has been thrown around forever and yet I
still want to throttle people doing the throwing.
The USA is the only country that has America in the name so we aren’t being chauvinistic by calling ourselves American. Try telling someone with limited English or Spanish that you are from the United States and they will often give you a befuddled look but tell them you’re American and they understand. Estadounidense is almost never used anywhere I’ve ever been in the Spanish-speaking world. We don’t even have an English word for our nationality.
The USA is the only country that has America in the name so we aren’t being chauvinistic by calling ourselves American. Try telling someone with limited English or Spanish that you are from the United States and they will often give you a befuddled look but tell them you’re American and they understand. Estadounidense is almost never used anywhere I’ve ever been in the Spanish-speaking world. We don’t even have an English word for our nationality.
People who do this suffer from
the same neurotic illness as creeps who go off the deep end when people use “literally”
to mean anything other than “in a literal manner." In my view those who correct other people’s
grammar or word usage automatically qualify to be hit over the head with a
board with a nail sticking out of it.
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