[WikiEN-l] Re: Lists which are sheer nonsense

[Jimmy Wales]

I think this discussion is getting pretty far afield, but...

Sheldon Rampton wrote:
> >That's nonsense.  "anti-American" does not carry the same use of the 
> >word as "American".
> 
> I see. So what you're saying is that the "American" in 
> "anti-American" is a different word entirely than the "American" in 
> "pro-American" or "American values." Wow. I had no idea! :)

I think Sheldon is right here.  "American dream" is another example of
this use of the word.  When people say "Americans" they aren't usually
speaking dryly of "citizens of the United States" -- there's a
connotation as well, of the things (good or bad) that Americans are
known for.

In some contexts, this is indispensible.

Suppose we're writing an article about war protests.  Suppose we want
to say "Due to X, Y, and Z, some of the protestors were said to be
anti-American, especially in the more conservative press."  This
sentence can't be rewritten as "said to be anti-US" without losing
something.

--Jimbo