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Often used by people who are American (from the Americas) but not from the US. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, and the rest of North and South America.
by ddulaney 2y ago
Often used by people who are American (from the Americas) but not from the US. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, and the rest of North and South America.
- HappySweeney 2y agoCanadians don't use that.
- Snoozus 2y agoThey might start soon
- ThatMedicIsASpy 2y agoThis is the first time I have seen this in my life.
- crazygringo 2y agoNo it's not. In English, American means from the US, and there's no word to refer to an inhabitants of the Americas (both continents combined). You can say North American or South American if you want, though. Since those are continents. You won't find "USAnian" in any authoritative published dictionary, not even the OED: https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=USAnian https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=USAni...
- TheSpiceIsLife 2y agoUrban dictionary has an entry from 2007 https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=usanians https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=usanians And anyway, official dictionaries are largely historical records, not authoritative sources for living languages. Words mean what people who use them intend them to mean.
- crazygringo 2y agoParent said "often used". It's not. Anyone can put anything in Urban Dictionary, c'mon. Nobody said no one has uttered the term before. If something is "often used", it winds up in dictionaries, with a lag of only a few years.
- TheSpiceIsLife 2y agoIt is in dictionaries, at least two. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Usanian https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Usanian I’ve heard or read the term at least once or twice along the way, I’ve even muttered it myself. It might not ever rise to a common enough usage that the big dictionaries list it, or maybe it will. I probably wouldn’t say it’s frequently used, but probably not rarely either.
- TeaBrain 2y agoThe six references provided in that entry are all obscure and none are dictionaries.
- genewitch 2y agoCan I ask what the point of this thread is? Is it because of the single word "often"? Seems like a waste of talent and energy.
- TeaBrain 2y agoThe digressions started with the first mention of the term in question by SSLy, not just the descriptor you mentioned. That user was probably pointlessly baiting, knowing that the nonstandard term would set someone off, which has led to the digressions that followed.
- SSLy 2y agoI've been using that term on and off. This was the first time someone came forward saying it's incorrect. I don't disagree with your assessment of my intentions, but it wasn't that usage, it was the politics part.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- TeaBrain 2y agoFrom what I've seen, it's mostly used by Americans who are trying to be edgy.
- hollerith 2y agoAnd Americans who hate America and hope that starting a movement to change one of its names might take it down a notch.
- defrost 2y agoYes. Let's change the name of America to the United States of America and move it from the front of drop down lists to the end. Many years ago an Australian show famous for comedic Vox Pop street interviews had a hilarious run on "Asking Americans to name a country that started with the letter U".
- SR2Z 2y agoI mean, sure, but you've also got "United Mexican States" for Mexico and "Republic of China" for Taiwan or even "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" for the UK. Nobody in their right mind calls any of them by their full names. The rules are more-or-less consistent, it's just pedantry to complain about "America."
- wan23 2y agoCalling the USA just America is like if Taiwan called itself just China. Yes it's common within the USA, but for the rest of the people who live in America, it seems strange.
- hollerith 2y ago"American" has been used by English speakers to refer to residents of the US for 3 centuries. To change it now (why? to avoid hurting the feelings of people, most of whom do not even speak or read English?) would be harmful. "Harmful" is a strong word, so I will explain. I don't hate Russia, but if I did, I would like it if the Russian people somehow stopped being able to continue to use the main word they've been using to refer to themselves for centuries. It would make it slightly harder for Russians to have conversations about themselves as a social and political entity and to understand old books about their ancestors. Web sites influence human behavior by making some operations slightly more difficult than others. E.g., the "Accept all cookies" button is a prominent color whereas the "Reject all cookies" link is less so. The point is that a "trivial inconvenience" that is encountered often (i.e., whenever anyone tries to start a conversation about Americans) might have a significant effect over future decades in making Americans feels less united with their countrymen and discouraging discussion of American identity (because for example "USian" is more awkward to use in a spoken conversation than "American" is).
- lucasban 2y agoDoing a bit of digging online, while there is evidence that /some/ people use it, it appears to be very limited. I understand the desire some people have for an unambiguous English term to refer to things from the US separately from those of the Americas in general, and see the value in doing so. Personally, as a native English speaker, I find USAnian to be clunky - maybe someone has thought (or will think) of a term that feels more natural. It feels analogous to the push from (largely English-speaking) activists in the US to use the term "latinx", much of the intended audience doesn't run into issues with the current terminology and aren't looking for a new term, and the term doesn't feel natural to existing speakers.
- anotherhue 2y agoAre we not allowed say Yanks anymore?
- mh- 2y agoYank here, you've certainly got my blessing. Can't imagine someone being bothered by it. I think of it as a demonym just like Brits or anything else.
- 2y ago
- radlad 2y agoI grew up in the US and sometimes refer to us as USian, especially if I want to be clear I'm not referring to Mexico/Canada. I've never seen USAnian.
- SSLy 2y agoThanks for the clarification, I'll switch to the other term in the future.
- radlad 2y agoI don't think there's anything wrong with USAnian, just hadn't seen it before. :)
- ralferoo 2y agoYeah, I remember coming across USian fairly regularly in the 2000s, but I can't say I've particularly noticed it in the last decade. I've never heard of USAnian before, but that doesn't mean it isn't used by some people, just not the ones I interact with. Before USian, I'd come across Merkin, but usually British writers using it in a mildly derogative sense because of the word's other meaning.
- SSLy 2y agoI might add the last term into my vocabulary now.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- havella 2y agoIt’s Colombia, not Columbia