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The Naming of America (2023)

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Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#21

Post by jltsiren »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #19
meiraleal wrote: post #8

Intersting. In Brazil we argue that the US isn't America. Great to know that Brazil was first called America, not the US :)

"America" is the only name the country has. Other countries are also called "United States of $FOO", so the USA does not own title to "United States" in the same way no one owns "Democratic Republic" as the name of their country. Regardless, in most languages and countries, it is just "America" so that ship has sailed. Either way, America or United States, everyone knows which country is being referenced.

The name of the country seems to be the equivalent of either "United States" or "United States of America" in pretty much every language I can read. "America" is an informal name people usually understand, much in the same way they understand when you call the UK "England".

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#22

Post by gerdesj »

meiraleal wrote: post #17
samatman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA, you mean?

Nobody would be taken seriously calling the US "America" in South America.

That's fine. You have your terminology and others have theirs.

It might (not) surprise you to learn that what I call Cyprus is called "Zypern" by Germans and there are a lot more copper related names for the place.

Closer to my home, what I call London is Londres in France and London in German. The city in question was named by a bunch of what would become Italians (Romans) - Londinium was named by a murderous bunch of colonial invaders.

I have insinuated an awful lot from your comment and "replied" to those insinuations as best I can.

I am somebody and I use the term America routinely to describe the USA and the term Americas for the entire continent. North America is US + CA and Southern America is Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and ... oh there are rather a lot more. There is also Central America which is the countries that join the north to the south.

I get that you have an axe to grind about which America is which and who owns which name. I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too.

I try to understand all points of view - its quite interesting.

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#23

Post by meiraleal »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #19
meiraleal wrote: post #8

Intersting. In Brazil we argue that the US isn't America. Great to know that Brazil was first called America, not the US :)

"America" is the only name the country has. Other countries are also called "United States of $FOO", so the USA does not own title to "United States" in the same way no one owns "Democratic Republic" as the name of their country. Regardless, in most languages and countries, it is just "America" so that ship has sailed. Either way, America or United States, everyone knows which country is being referenced.

America being the name of the country isn't a problem, the problem is the people from this country calling Americans "latinos". Or Native-Americans, or Whatever-Americans because the only Americans are themselves.

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#24

Post by meiraleal »

gerdesj wrote: post #22
meiraleal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody would be taken seriously calling the US "America" in South America.

That's fine. You have your terminology and others have theirs. It might (not) surprise you to learn that what I call Cyprus is called "Zypern" by Germans and there are a lot more copper related names for the place. Closer to my home, what I call London is Londres in France and London in German. The city in question was named by a bunch of what would become Italians (Romans) - Londinium was named by a murderous bunch…

> I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too.

I never met a Brazilian that cares about it tho. There was a big national uproar a few decades ago when some Japanese company tried to patent the use of the Açaí fruit and trademark.

now about America and Americans. South Americans and North Americans are as much "Americans" as Northern and Southern Europeans are Europeans. Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos (what do they call Canadians? I guess just Canadians) lowers our history and culture. North-Americans or US-Americans or whatever-Americans shouldn't be the ones defining who is American, who is Latino-American, who is Native-American, Afro-American. Not surprising, there isn't a Euro-American tag.

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#25

Post by gotoeleven »

meiraleal wrote: post #23
jandrewrogers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"America" is the only name the country has. Other countries are also called "United States of $FOO", so the USA does not own title to "United States" in the same way no one owns "Democratic Republic" as the name of their country. Regardless, in most languages and countries, it is just "America" so that ship has sailed. Either way, America or United States, everyone knows which country is being referenced.

America being the name of the country isn't a problem, the problem is the people from this country calling Americans "latinos". Or Native-Americans, or Whatever-Americans because the only Americans are themselves.

The main reason people call themselves $HYPHENATION-americans is because they want some free stuff from the government for their particular $HYPHENATION

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#26

Post by shiroiushi »

meiraleal wrote: post #24
gerdesj wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fine. You have your terminology and others have theirs. It might (not) surprise you to learn that what I call Cyprus is called "Zypern" by Germans and there are a lot more copper related names for the place. Closer to my home, what I call London is Londres in France and London in German. The city in question was named by a bunch of what would become Italians (Romans) - Londinium was named by a murderous bunch…

> I have some sympathy for Brazil getting pissed off about Amazon (the company) too. I never met a Brazilian that cares about it tho. There was a big national uproar a few decades ago when some Japanese company tried to patent the use of the Açaí fruit and trademark. now about America and Americans. South Americans and North Americans are as much "Americans" as Northern and Southern Europeans are Europeans. Calling t…

>Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos

"Latinos" are what Spanish and (to a much lesser extent) Portuguese-speaking people living in the USA call themselves (and their relatives still living in other Latin-American countries). They seem to prefer it to "Hispanics". And the term only applies to people speaking Latin-derived languages (i.e., Spanish and Portuguese). So the people living in Belize, for instance, are not "Latinos" at all.

Similarly, African-Americans were named that way by themselves, to distinguish themselves from the majority white Americans, since they had a very different and unique culture and history. It wasn't some kind of pejorative they were stuck with by outsiders; they came up with it on their own because they were tired of being called "negroes", "colored", or much worse.

You seem to have a very warped perception of who thinks what, and as the other poster said, you obviously have an ax to grind.

People in the USA are called "Americans" because it's (part of) the name of their country, and there's no other convenient and pronounceable demonym to describe them, and there's no other country in the world that has the word "America" in it.

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#28

Post by o11c »

robertclaus wrote: post #16

Interesting that the article is so rigorous/long even though there turns out to be clear historical evidence showing where the name came from.

It's not particularly rigorous in places. One that I'm familiar with is the names: German "Amal-" is completely unrelated to Latin "[A]emil-". And for both of them the original meaning is at best suspected, not "known".

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#29

Post by yulker »

jltsiren wrote: post #21
jandrewrogers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"America" is the only name the country has. Other countries are also called "United States of $FOO", so the USA does not own title to "United States" in the same way no one owns "Democratic Republic" as the name of their country. Regardless, in most languages and countries, it is just "America" so that ship has sailed. Either way, America or United States, everyone knows which country is being referenced.

The name of the country seems to be the equivalent of either "United States" or "United States of America" in pretty much every language I can read. "America" is an informal name people usually understand, much in the same way they understand when you call the UK "England".

England is not the UK.

Re: The Naming of America (2023)

#30

Post by yulker »

gerdesj wrote: post #22
meiraleal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody would be taken seriously calling the US "America" in South America.

That's fine. You have your terminology and others have theirs. It might (not) surprise you to learn that what I call Cyprus is called "Zypern" by Germans and there are a lot more copper related names for the place. Closer to my home, what I call London is Londres in France and London in German. The city in question was named by a bunch of what would become Italians (Romans) - Londinium was named by a murderous bunch…

Mexico is part of North America, interesting you left it out.
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