How do you call someone born in the US besides "American"?
How do you call someone born in the US besides "American"?
Well, everybody born in the american continent is technically "american" too, including Central and South America. Is there a specific term in english for these people?
Edit: Thanks for all your answers, especially the wholesome ones and those patient enough to explain it thoroughly. Since we (South Americans) and you (North Americans) use different models/conventions of continent boundaries, it makes sense for you to go by "Americans", while it doesn't for us.
There's not a clear and conscience alternative to "American." If you're trying to differentiate us from other people from the Americas you'd just say US Citizen. And while yes the entirety of this hemisphere is some variation of America be it North, Central, or South the other countries here have distinct names and we really don't.
At the risk of sounding like a typical US asshole, here goes nothing. This is how I've explained it to friends from Europe and it seemed to help.
If Brazil had decided to go by the name "United States of Brazil" we would still call them Brazilians because there is another country with the title "United States" that also exists. Similar to how we call people from the Peoples Republic of China, Chinese. We don't call them "People's Republicans" because that's a title not a unique identifier or name. What if that same country decided to go by the name the Peoples Republic of Asia instead, would we call them Peoples Republicans or would we call them Asians?
The title "United States" is telling you that this area is united together and the borders represent states, not country's. "America" tells you where those united states are, the continent of America. The term "American" is generalized and honestly doesn't accurately represent the vast cultural differences within the United States. The states often have their own rights and laws separate from the US government and also unique cultures. Ideally we would be called by our states name for its citizens like Californian or New Yorker, for example. Similar to how you would refer to people from Europe as European unless you wanted to be specific to Italy, then you'd say Italian. But sometimes you need a general term, hence "American."
All that being said, it is problematic and a massive reminder of this country's bloodthirsty and genocidal colonization of a large part of North America. Looking at the country's past shows that they were very much trying to also get central and south America as part of the United States. What better way to propagandize and make it look like they had every right to the rest of the Americas than to make it appear as though this country or that country already was America and therefore should be part of these United States? But however problematic it is this is the name we have now, for better or worse.
As an addendum of sorts. We Indigenous Americans would often much rather be called by the names of our sovereign Nations yet everyone calls us Native American. Why is that? Food for thought that might help with understanding the problematic struggle we have here. It's not simply us as citizens that perpetuate the issue, it's a global colonization effort whether the others realize they are participating or not. (Spoiler: they realize)
tldr: because colonization + United States is a title not a name
"American" is the official name, though throughout history attempts have been made to find alternatives. You can read more on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States
The only officially and commonly used alternative for referring to the people of the United States in English is to refer to them as citizens of that country.[18] Another alternative is US-American,[19] also spelled US American.
Several single-word English alternatives for American have been suggested over time, especially Usonian, popularized by architect Frank Lloyd Wright,[20] and the nonce term United-Statesian.[21]
Writer H. L. Mencken collected a number of proposals from between 1789 and 1939, finding terms including Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, and United Stater.[22] Names for broader categories include terms such as Western Hemispherian, New Worlder, and North Atlantican.[23][24][25]
Nevertheless, no alternative to "American" is common in English.[18]
The proper term is American.
everybody born in the american continent is technically “american” too
The implied context of your question is in English.. In the English-speaking world, there is no American continent. People from North America are North Americans; people from South America are South Americans. People from the United States of America are American. There is no ambiguity. There is also no good term to collectively describe everyone from the Americas but there’s also rarely any need to discuss that.
I consider terms such as “USonian” and whatnot to be highly offensive. Nobody should tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language just because the same word means something else in another language. It would be like telling French people they’re not allowed to call their arm a bras because it refers to an article of clothing in English. Other languages where America means something else already have their own terms for people from the US. English, however, has no real ambiguity except that caused by those trying to shame Americans for calling themselves Americans.
Language rules (in English at least) are descriptive not prescriptive. They try to explain why Americans are called Americans, not determine what they're called. They're called Americans, whether or not it's logical, or the ideal descriptor, or fits with other names, that's what they're called.
Also most English speaking countries don't have an "American" continent, they have North and South America as separate continents, so you would say someone is North or South American to refer to the continent, not just American. Similar to how some people consider Eurasia a single continent but very few people would identify as Eurasian.
A “US-American” if you need to be very clear. But most people just say “American”.
To add a bit of context, it isn't arrogance or something that drives us to use "American" as a demonym, it's just the linguistic norm. I don't find any of the other names offensive (except seppo, but that one is meant to offend me), but most of us would probably do a double take at the term "USican" or "USian." Virtually all of us would accept Yankee.
Further reading: the full name of Mexico is the United Mexican States. If we wanted to be pedantic, we could say that using the reference to the US would be ambiguous, as they too are technically a US.
obese.
The simple answer is really, no. Colloquially if you say "American" you're talking about someone from the USA. We'll further segregate ourselves into the States we're from, which isn't that different a distinction between "European" and "German".
I usually respond to "Hey stupid", maybe try that?
Don't actually try this.
Yank
"From the United States"
Honestly, Yankee is probably the best. Some southerners won’t like it, and westerners will probably be confused, but we all know it means American and it’s the only real term for one of us that doesn’t lend the question “and why do we call you this and not people from the United States of Mexico this”. Our country’s name is unfortunately extremely generic.
The sovereign people of any nation have a right to call themselves what they please. People of the US decided on 'American' long before the Internet was a thing and Latin America people got pissed off. US intervention in Latin America is a stain in history, but this is categorically dumb. US citizens call themselves Americans because it's in the name. Literally. Canadians don't call themselves Americans and never will. This is dumb argument. Respectfully.
Gringos
It's always been funny to me when latin Americans get pissy at the term American being used to describe the country who's president is Biden ( said with love as mx) . They always try to correct Americans to "estados unidenses" United Statean. Which in my opinion doesn't work for 3 reasons. First name recognition most of the world associate Americans with 'merica. 2nd it's a difficult set of words for Anglo speakers especially vs Americano. Thirdly there are actually 2 countries thats proper name include "United States" those are united states of American and United States of Mexico, who colloquially are known as America and Mexico respectively.
Royally fucked
U.S.A-holes
Treasonous Colonial
In Italian he/she would be called statunitense, statunitensi for they.
As an American, I don't really give a crap what nationality someone calls me as long as they're not being rude. I honestly identify as a Floridian anyway. So, even if I met other Americans overseas, I'd think of them as from their state or cultural area (Plains, Appalachia, Southwest, etc.).
I don't expect people outside of the US to know the difference even though the US supposedly dominates the world with media. I don't know much about the vast majority of other countries, including England. All I know is that people from Liverpool are apparently bollocks...whatever that means.
While technically correct, I've never heard a Brazilian refer to themselves as "American" when they intended to mean South American. Linguistically, when you say "American" you're talking about a citizen of the United States, not just any person from the western hemisphere. And if you're talking about a specific continent (North America, Central America, South America) you're going to be specific about it. A Brazilian would say "I'm South American" when referring to their continent.
It also really bothers me that they get to coin the whole American term when it's a terrible representation of America as a continent, the USA doesn't really even have a proper name, it's a description, kinda like calling a dog Dog. Mexico's full name is actually Mexican United States of America.
I personally call them united-statesian when the word gringo doesn't fit the context, which is the translation of estadounidense from Spanish. But it's so stupid because whatever you call them applies to so many more people than just them because they don't have a name! And their states are not really that united.美国人
Idk about everybody else, but you can call me Michael (or kase, obv) :)
USAdian
Main protagonist
In spanish its estadounidense
Stinky Gringo
♪Booooooorn in the US-A!♪
and you have to sing it in tune to use this term correctly.
To answer your question seriously: As a Canadian, I'd say "...from the States" to describe an American.
Bonus: "our Southern neighbours" is the polite term I use when something stupid happens in the US and I'm hoping and praying Canada can ward off that part of culture making its way here.
"someone born in the US"
Murican. Defenders of Freedom. Liberators of Liberty. Hot Dogs. Butch.
Usonano
Technically you could shorten it the other way to Unionist. Which is likely to be confusing, but on the plus side might make some idiots mad.
Simple, USAmerican
First off, there is also a North America.
Second, those of us in North and South America refer to ourselves as such. Canadians are North Americans, not Americans.
Third, Americans are usually referred to as Yankees or Yanks outside of America, much like the English are referred to as Poms and the Canadians referred to as Canucks.
I call them US citizens.
Halfway-North American
Learn about the states and call them by their state name like we do in the US: (washingtonians, oregonians, californians, and so on.)
Internationally people love making fun of Americans for knowing little about geography, but it's always a bit surprising to find out how little people in other countries know about US geography considering many of our states are bigger (size-wise) than many entire countries.
This is one of the reasons Americans will often identify themselves as a citizen of their state or even city. They say they're Texan or a New Yorker, for example.
It can come off as conceited, as it's not reasonable to expect non-Americans to have a perfect knowledge of US geography, but it helps the sentences flow and is more accurate/specific than just 'American.'
On their phones.
@valveman "From the States" would be a common way to say it while traveling.
Screeches in freedom eagles 🦅🦅🦅
The People from the North 🎅
Bandaríkjamaður
I started to use murican years ago and use sometimes u.s.tard for mentally challenged people like Karens, flat earthers, anti vaxers, subscribers to family/scammer youtube channel, and so on 😔
KKona :^)
We have "US Amerikaner" in German.
All y'alls
@valveman "From the States" would be a common way to say it while traveling.
Still on the phone. And why is this post still on my front page 2 days later?
Though I live in North America...
Which is part of the Americas...
Which should make me an American.
Dickhead?
US Citizen. It's the simplest and most accurate. There are plenty of people living in the US who are not citizens, but anyone born here is automatically a US Citizen, no matter who their parents are. It's another one of the half-decent things about this country the far-right Republicans would like to get rid of.
I use Statesian depending on context.
In the context of your question: The name of their country.
Americans are called that because they're from the United States of America.
You could refer to the continent they're from (North American or South American) but that's less common.
I generally use 'USican', pronounced yoo-ess-ican. Every seemseto understand me.
Edit: this may be the most controversial thing i've said on lemmy.
I was born in Missouri in the USA.
I am human.
This nonsense is a source of human conflict. Knock it off.
There is no such thing as "the American continent". North America is a continent. South America is a continent. Central America is the region connecting the two. Collectively, these are "The Americas", not "America".
I cannot think of an adjective to describe someone born on a line extending from Anchorage to Cabo San Pablo.
Can you provide an adjective to describe someone born on a line extending from Oslo to Cape Town?
People from Canada, Mexico and South America are not technically “Americans” because none of them have “America” in the name of their country, whereas we do. In fact, it’s the only word in the name of our country that uniquely identifies us. We’re just called Americans because it’s realistically the only name we could have. If other countries that already have their own names take issue with that, they should have done something about it before we chose the name United States of America.