Mueen Nawaz <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
> > Charles C wrote:
> >> The term "American" has always bugged me when referring to citizenship
> >> of the
> >> U.S. _of_ A. 
> > 
> > Me too. But when I was vacationing in Europe for many weeks, people
> > would ask me where I'm from. I'd say "The United States."  They'd say
> > "You mean America? You're American?"
> > 
> > So I figured if other countries call me American, it's good enough for me.

>         Yeah - people from most nations refer to citizens of the US as
> Americans. Some of the same people insist that America is not just the US.

  Since there's no confusion, what's the harm?

  Nobody calls eg. a Brasilian an "American", even if he lives in the
Americal continent. The adjective "American" is reserved for citizens
of the USA, and nobody else in the continent is called like that. Everybody
else is called by their country.

  You could argue that it's unfair or pretentious or whatever, but since
it doesn't cause confusion, who cares?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
>   You could argue that it's unfair or pretentious or whatever, but since
> it doesn't cause confusion, who cares?

Right. Probably the most sane way of dealing with it. :)


-- 
~Mike

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Mike Raiford <"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> >   You could argue that it's unfair or pretentious or whatever, but since
> > it doesn't cause confusion, who cares?
>
> Right. Probably the most sane way of dealing with it. :)
>
>
> --
> ~Mike

Point taken.  I suppose part of it is that I prefer it when things as big as
countries have their own unique single-word names as most seem to.   And I
prefer it when technical correctness removes rather than adds confusion.

On a side note, my home-town was to be named after Portland, ME or Boston, MA
based on the best-two-out-of-three flips of a penny.

Charles

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Warp wrote:
>   Since there's no confusion, what's the harm?

	No harm, beyond not using the terminology that the people themselves
use. In the US, the country is virtually never referred to as "America".
Well, OK - perhaps in phrases like "In today's America..." or "Only in
America...". But in formal writing, it's "US citizen", and not "American
citizen". Or "the US won n gold medals at the Olympics." Not "America
won n gold medals".

	Other than that, it's not a big deal.


-- 
If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer? - Steven Wright


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                       >>>>>>mue### [at] nawazorg<<<<<<
                                   anl

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Mueen Nawaz <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote:
> But in formal writing, it's "US citizen", and not "American citizen".

  "American citizen" (in quotes) returns "only" about 1.7 million hits
in google...

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Mueen Nawaz wrote:
> Warp wrote:
>>   Since there's no confusion, what's the harm?
> 
> 	No harm, beyond not using the terminology that the people themselves
> use. In the US, the country is virtually never referred to as "America".

I disagree. Informally, it's always America. "The American president met the 
Israel president today."   "African-American" and "ABC (American Born 
Chinese)".

Obviously in legal contexts it's going to say "US" instead of "America." 
Even there, people rarely say "USA" when speaking. If you're in a situation 
where saying "American" might actually imply the continent rather than the 
country, you would want to avoid it. If someone asks "what country are you 
from", there's no more confusion saying "I'm an American" than there is 
saying "I'm Canadian".

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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On Thu, 21 May 2009 13:34:46 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> "The American president met
> the Israel president today."

Actually, I usually hear/read this as "US President Barack Obama met with 
Israeli President Shimon Peres".  Maybe it's just my choice of news 
sources, though.

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:
>> "The American president met
>> the Israel president today."
> 
> Actually, I usually hear/read this as "US President Barack Obama met with 
> Israeli President Shimon Peres".  Maybe it's just my choice of news 
> sources, though.

	I'll agree with Darren. I hear both. Perhaps I was a bit too general.
"American" _is_ often used to refer to things from the US. My point was
that within the US, the country is rarely referred to as "America", with
the exception of certain _phrases_.

	Note where I used "the US" in the preceding paragraph. Within the US
(of A), it would be awkward to say those sentences replacing it with
"America". Some Americans do it, but they're more of an exception.
Perhaps this is a generational thing?

-- 
The beatings will continue until morale improves.


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                       >>>>>>mue### [at] nawazorg<<<<<<
                                   anl

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Warp wrote:
> Mueen Nawaz <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote:
>> But in formal writing, it's "US citizen", and not "American citizen".
> 
>   "American citizen" (in quotes) returns "only" about 1.7 million hits
> in google...

	I meant "in formal writing within the US".

	How many of those hits are "formal writing" (e.g. official reports,
newspapers, etc)?

	Of those, how many originate from within the US?

	You of all people know that Google searches are a poor indicator -
beyond proving an existence theorem. All it takes is about 5 or so
instances that become popular and reproduced all over.

	Having said that, I'll grant that perhaps I overstated it.<G>

-- 
The beatings will continue until morale improves.


                    /\  /\               /\  /
                   /  \/  \ u e e n     /  \/  a w a z
                       >>>>>>mue### [at] nawazorg<<<<<<
                                   anl

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On Thu, 21 May 2009 23:05:04 -0500, Mueen Nawaz wrote:

> 	I'll agree with Darren. I hear both. Perhaps I was a bit too 
general.
> "American" _is_ often used to refer to things from the US. My point was
> that within the US, the country is rarely referred to as "America", with
> the exception of certain _phrases_.

Oh, I don't disagree with the premise, just the example he used isn't 
what I'm used to hearing or reading.

Jim

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