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KAMSPioneer | 3 months ago

In my personal experience, people from Latin American countries will sometimes point out that they are American because they come from North or South America.

Which is, of course, true; however, in English conversation, it's often nothing more than pedantry. In Spanish it makes more sense, since there is a separate demonym for a US person that doesn't co-opt the term "American."

Outside of Romance language speakers born on the American continents, I agree that everyone seems fine calling US-born persons "Americans" without much confusion nor gnashing of teeth.

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lazide|3 months ago

It’s even more amusing in some ways. A common way to refer to those from the USA in Brazil, for instance (even an official one!) is ‘Norte Americano’.

Which is all kinds of weird because - what about Mexico and Canada? And what about the ‘United states’ part?

It’s just to disambiguate from ‘Americano’ as in what others in South America sometimes use to refer to latin Americans and as a little bit of a FU to the USA, hahah.

KAMSPioneer|3 months ago

Ahh, I forgot about that...and to be transparent, I actually have no idea what French Guyana, Haiti, or Belize typically do to differentiate between people of the American continent(s) and US persons. I should have said Hispanoamerica, but oh well.

jandrewrogers|3 months ago

North America also formally has two United States: Mexico and America.