cprompt(a)optonline.net wrote:
I realize that anecdotal evidence doesn't really
mean much for an
encyclopedia, but I'd still like to share. I asked my friend who lives in
Canada whether he ever calls himself an American as a resident of North
America, and whether he would refer to people in Mexico or South America as
Americans. He replied no, and said that he refers to himself as a Canadian,
United States citizens as Americans, Mexico citizens as Mexicans, etc. He
doesn't know anyone else who does. It seems to me that an overwhelming
majority of people I've come into contact with, as well as the media I've
been exposed to refer to U.S. citizens as Americans, preferring to identify
people by their nation rather than continent. While you could refer to
people from Europe as Europeans, it would just promote confusion if you
identified people from the Americas and Americans. While I personally think
that one nation, (even if it is my own) should not hog the name of two
entire continents, I see it as the same situation as Pennsylvania Dutch
(Pennsylvania German?)
There is no doubt that "people of the United States" is less
controversial, but those of us in the other Americas will certainly
condescend to permit them to use the term, "American", providing that we
be spared from being mistaken for them, for certainly the citizens of
all the other countries of the Americas have available adjectives that
would enable them to be distinguished from the United States.
Amerigo Vespucci's name was first suggested for naming the continent in
1504, i.e.there were 272 years between this and 1776 while there have
been only 227 since. In about 1890 Secretary of State James G. Blaine
was actively promoting the renaming of the United States to commemorate
Christopher Columbus (having failed to recognize that the citizens of
New Granada had already claimed this honour). The movement obviously
failed, despite the fact that at that time Vespucci was being widely but
wrongfully accused as a thief who had stolen the credit for Columbus's
discoveries. Vespucci was a businessman seeking to exploit and bring
home the riches of foreign lands, and as a Florentine was in a better
position to be marketed than the Genoan who was alleged to have
introduced syphilis to Europe. This all suggests that the United States
of America is suitably named. Perhaps we could initiate a movement to
rename the two continents.
Eclecticology