side and outside the U.S., America means the United States of America. The common use of language is based on conventions, and if everybody agrees that a certain word means something, then so it is.
In Spanish there is the word estadounidense, which is the official term to describe what is related to the U.S.A.
In my opinion, it would be very interesting if the term Usonian became more popular.
#307 - 03/22/00 06:36 PM Re: Who is American?
I've just come back from the USA and was discussing this very point with an "American friend" as I noted that Candians I have met do not respond well to the suggestion they might me American and seem happier with North American (which I understand entirely, speaking as an English person living in Scotland). Her answer was that "American" just a lazy abbreviation that had become accepted in the USA because there wasn't a ready made term such as "Canadian", "British" or "Australian" and United Statesish or United Statesian sounded a little clumsy.
I was interested to hear my friend's definition of a "Yankee".
To people outside the US, a Yankee is someone who lives in the US. To someone who lives in the US, a Yankee is someone who lives in the North. To a Northerner, a Yankee is someone who lives in New England. To a New Englander, a Yankee is someone who lives in New Hampshire. To
someone who lives in New Hampshire, a Yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.
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