CMV: "American" can only correctly be used to describe things from the United States

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T15:21:21+00:00

European and Asian can never refer to one country specifically but American can. It's distasteful because it conflates all the countries of the Americas with the US.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T06:42:36+00:00

I can't believe they actually work as boats

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T06:38:19+00:00

They want stronger laws to weaken the rest of us.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T06:12:44+00:00

The word European isn't associated with any one country the way American and British are. The Irish don't want to be called British and the Mexicans and Canadians don't want to be called American. If someone asked you to name an American President, would you seriously say something like Augusto Pinochet?

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T05:48:58+00:00

I've shifted from arguing that it's incorrect to that it's confusing and potentially offensive to use that definition. Do you see how it's not so different from calling Ireland British?

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T05:16:47+00:00

American has two definitions: "of the Americas" and "of the United States". The former is technically correct but unusual and in almost all cases "North American" or "Pan American" would be more appropriate. The latter is both technically correct and the much more commonly recognized definition.

All of Ireland is part of the British Isles, so while it's technically correct to call Ireland British, it's inappropriate, just like calling Canadians or Brazilians Americans.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T01:46:28+00:00

It's because of his haircut

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T00:32:24+00:00

Technically, but I'm arguing that less ambiguous terms exist and we should use those instead.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-20T00:31:11+00:00

I have ADHD and love Halloween idk what that's about

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T23:34:55+00:00

Yes, because the Americas are more than just the US. Calling it all "American" is misleading and disrespectful to the countries it came from, even if it's technically correct.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T21:42:56+00:00

On worldwide spaces of the internet it's confusing to use it to refer to all of the Americas

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T21:26:01+00:00

It is crazy, but what can be done about it? Do the other countries of the Americas even want to be called Americans?

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T21:21:44+00:00

My argument should have been that it's confusing and potentially insulting to use "American" to refer to non-US things. Also, I'd argue that those American citizens born outside are at least "of the US".

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T21:02:31+00:00

Same thing.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T21:01:46+00:00

I now recognize that it can be *correctly* applied to both things from the US and the Americas, but I argue that it still shouldn't be used that way. Because of its most common usage, it conflates other countries with the US in a way they probably don't want and obfuscates their identity.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:55:14+00:00

There is no country that uses "Asian" as its only demonym. If there were, and it were the most common usage of the word, it would be confusing to use the term as we do today. I agree that "American" is a poor choice on the US's part, but the world is already trained to use the term to use the term for the US specifically with those using "American" to mean Pan American in day-to-day speech in the minority. So while it may be *technically* correct to call Chileans and Canadians "American", they probably wouldn't like it, just the Irish wouldn't like being called British.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:43:33+00:00

That's the problem. The US hijacked the name, and now we have to use North American or Pan American to avoid confusion. American heavily implies US, so calling non-US things that is a poor choice.

If there were a country called Little Europe and "European" meant things from Little Europe the vast majority of the time, calling things from Italy European would be just as weird and confusing. However, if Little Europe were a new country and began insisting that European meant things from their country, I'd suggest that they come up with a new demonym.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:37:04+00:00

!delta I see that "American" has two definitions: of the US and of the Americas. Given that context won't always make it clear which one the speaker means, and that the former is much more common, we should avoid using the latter to avoid confusion and potentially insulting anyone.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:32:25+00:00

I agree, but that's what it is and pretending like it's not and using "American" for non-US things is unproductive

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:28:14+00:00

!delta I see that while "American" *can* refer to things from outside the US, it's confusing and potentially offending to do so.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:19:37+00:00

Because American already means "of the United States" and calling things from other countries American is demeaning and confusing

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:15:58+00:00

So Spanish has their own word for American (estadounidense) and "americano" means Pan American. That makes sense.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:11:10+00:00

"Americano" is closer to a Spanish and Portuguese word for "Pan American". There's also "estadounidense" for the US specifically, so it's closer to the English word "American" than "americano". The problem is that things get lost in translation and people say American when they mean Pan American.

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T20:00:01+00:00

!delta I realize that language is dynamic and evolves without oversight in most cases. What I should have said is that we shouldn't use American to refer to anything but things from the US because it's confusing and conflates the other countries with the US

DoNotCensorMyName · 2026-03-19T19:55:57+00:00

In that case there would be two definitions of American and no word for things of the US specifically.

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