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PBBN43 on 06 March 2012
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insomniac17 said:
PBBN43 said:

I have a lot of things to say about it (mostly negative stuff), but what annoys me the most is how they think that the entire American continent is theirs (and it's just one continent by all logical geographical definitions, the US, and to a lesser extent Canada, seperate the continent so that instead of making the sacrifice of saying "US and Canada" they can say North America, without realizing that Mexico is part of North America).
It's offensive and disrespectful to the other Americans to refer to the US as "America" and using the demonym "American" exclusively for them.

Edit: "Oh, and as a favor, let us know what country you're from." I was born in Brazil, went to live in Italy when I was 2, and I've been in Canada since 2010.

I personally disagree with this. The name of the country is the United States of America. The name of Canada is Canada. The name of Mexico is Mexico. Only one of these has America in it, and that is the US. Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans. It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American, but because the name of our country contains America. What would you recommend we use instead?

A demonym derived off United Stated could be less ambiguous, like "United Statesian". It doesn't sound good (especially in English), but it's more adequate. Although, perhaps it would be more suitable to not use a demonym as the US doesn't have a "proper" country name like the rest of the countries do. Lots of cities don't have a demonym and I've never seen anyone complain about that.

And if "It is not out of arrogance that we use the term American" how can you explain US citizens referring to the country as "America"? That seems arrogant to me.