What do you call someone who lives in the USA? Not American.

[Liv]

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This was one of the first things we were told when we started to travel abroad. Don't call yourself "American", it offends people because it makes you sound like your country owns all of North America. Canadians get extra furious.

While there isn't a clear consensus, many variants have been used such as "Citizen of the US", USen, Washintonian, Colonican, Columbard, Fredonian, Statesider, Uessian, United Statesman, Yankee, and Merkin.

In Latin American, "Gringo" (white non-Spanish speaking) has come to generally refer to a citizen of the U.S.

Of course all this over looks the obvious. How about we just go with "The United".... it has a nice ring to it and is the complete antithesis of what we are.

[Sanjuro]

Rest assured, that wont be the case in a few short years...

The crumbling period of the United States empire started on September 11th. Since then, a chain of events so dire occurred that it would seem the empire defeated itself by a series of catastrophic mistakes. After 9/11, Americans wanted revenge, and the war in Afghanistan became a very easy sale for the Bush administration. But then the neo-cons seized the opportunity to push their agenda of the New American Century project, and it was precisely the Achille’s heel of the empire...

...Americans have a delusional sense of historic exceptionalism which they share with most previous empires. After all America’s ascension to a leading role on the world scene is very recent. The deal was sealed in Yalta in 1945 between Stalin and Roosevelt, with Churchill present but already taking the back seat. In a matter of 5 years, and about 60 million deaths, two news empires had emerged from the ruin of three: the United States and the Soviet Union. On the losing side of history was, of course, Japan, the empire of the sun, but also Britain and France.

The old imperial powers of Britain and France were slow to fully understand the nature of the new game. It took the loss of India for the United Kingdom, in 1948, and the one of Indochina for France in 1951 to make them understand that they would have from now on an ever shrinking role on the world stage. However, it took 9 years for Britain and France to fully digest the consequences of Yalta. In 1956, France and Britain took their very last joint imperialist venture by attacking Egypt over the ownership of the Suez Canal. The decaying empires were told to back off by the United States and the USSR.

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/149173

[A Person]

"American' is generally understood to mean 'a citizen of the United States". Unless it's 'North American'. It is a little arrogant to co-opt the name of two continents for one country (it's as if Germany decided to co-opt the name 'Europeans') but the world has had 230 years to get used to the idea. Could have been worse - you could have been Vespuccians and everyone would think you were a small noisy scooter.



I don't think many Canadians get furious about it. Canadians tend not to get furious about things that arn't hockey.

How about 'Us' - that has a nice ring to it. "He's one of Us", "Why does nobody like Us" "Us goin' to nuke yer"

[Liv]

Via Joe...

The term is as absurd as “États-Unien” (FR: “United-statesian”), and I hear it more and more.
My simple retort to the pinheaded who argue to me that they have the right to define the terms by which we Americans describe ourselves is to enlighten a lower being and ask how many other nations that have the word “America” in their name.

In ignorance, the answer nearly without fail is “all of the nations in the Americas.” I then ask them to name them.

The only nation other than the Unites States of America that has the word America in its’ name isn’t in the Americas: it’s American Samoa.

Remember, because they are inherently higher beings whose egos generally cannot bear even the most discreet bit of correction or presicion, you must insist that they’re right in order to make them go away or give you your measly €0,14 in change at the register.
États-Unien » est parfois préféré à « américain » afin de différencier les États-Unis du Canada et du Mexique.
No it isn’t.

États-Unien? Either way, I don't identify as American, so I guess I'm clear.