"USians"

[sysyphus]

And OUR point is that the United States hijacked our continent name for their own private name, so since we didn't like calling them that, we came up with a different word for them.

Well my point is that it is completely out of order for a city which in your mind is not a part of Canada should name its hockey team the "Canadiens". The word Canadian and its direct french translation is reserved for those of us on this continent who speak the Queen's English thank you very much so give back what you have hijacked.

On a more serous note, what real need is there for a word to collectively describe the people of the Western hemisphere? The people of the Eastern hemisphere don't have one, they don't seem too bothered.

 

[Evie]

Well, you know, that would be a convincing argument except the part where "Canada" in western use originally meant the Saint Lawrence valley, and "Canadiens" the French-speaking inhabitants thereof...

Remind me, who hijacked whose name, again?

(But then, we hijacked the name in turn from the Iroquoian populations who used it to mean "Village")

 

[G-Force Junkie]

If we must rename America , I'm game for Rooseveltia. Beauty of it is that both parties had revered presidents named Roosevelt. We could also rename it for Jefferson or Franklin.

 

[Kerozine]

It just doesn't sound right in English, though this is probably due to force of habit.

Usage of the term "American" to describe US citizens at best only gets annoying when its overused and overemphasized.

 

[Ansar]

I completely agree with Kraznaya, and I don't really understand why you guys use this term other than to show your distaste for the United States.

Who's showing distate for the United States?

 

[Evie]

Actually, I do agree. Unitedstatesians sounds pretty silly in English. It's not so bad in French or Spanish.

I wouldn't use Unitedstatesians outside silly talk in English, TBH. And even in silly talk (such as this highly amusing thread), I could well use Americans as a whole.

 

[Bill3000]

Columbia. It was one of the first nicknames of the American colonies, and we would only screw British Columbia (sorry pasi, but you don't matter) and Colombia (sorry ansar, but you don't matter)

 

[Gogf]

Who's showing distate for the United States?

What other possible reason couple people have for using it? It's not like saying "USians" a couple times means that the next time you say "Americans" people will think you mean people from the western hemisphere.

 

[Shadylookin]

I don't really care. Isn't Germany's real name Deutchland and Spain's real name Espana. I doubt it's all that uncommon for a country to be a completely different name in a different language.

I'm pretty sure in spanish we're already Estidos unidosians or something to that effect.

 

[West 36]

I won't use it, but you all can go ahead. Especially non-english speakers since their words don't sound as bad.

 

[LightFang]

USians is a ridiculous term. We're Americans! Rawr!

 

[Perfection]

Just call us "master".

 

[Arwon]

So nobody else uses Statesider?

 

[shortguy]

Sounds like the name of a shoe.

 

[alcal]

Yankees???

 

[Babbler]

Yankees???

You probably get you ass kicked for calling an Alabamian a Yankee, methinks.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

You probably get you ass kicked for calling an Alabamian a Yankee, methinks.

I already addressed this.

Spoiler When someone called Southerners "Yankees" :

Actually, that's totally wrong! I know that outside the US, yank is a deragatory word for an American, and I assume you beleive people from the South fit more stereotypes of Americans. Yankee was a word that actually originated in the North, as a name for the British to call the American rebels during the war for independence. However, it didn't really bother us, and we sort of adopted it as our own. Even the song "Yankee Doodle" was invented by the British to make fun of us, but we used it as our impromtu National anthem.

Then during the civil war, the South used the word Yankee to describe the "Northern Agressors" with which they were at war. They felt no cultural or historical connection to the North, and being called a yank would not make sense to them.

So if you wanted to call a USian a name, yank is not your best choice. If that person was from the South, you could possibly use redneck, hillbilly, sesh, hoss, Hatfield/McCoy, among others. Yank is not that powerful. We even have a baseball team called the New York Yankees.

Or, you could just be nice and not bellitle people for where they come from.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Agreed, this Canuck has no need to use the term American to refer to anything other than the silly buggers south of the border who lacked the creativity to come up with a decent name for their country.

I would also like to see the use of the word "Indians" limited to people from India.

Hear hear!

Nigerians...what's your point?

Anyways, in Spanish we use "Estadounidense", which would basically translate to United Statian.

Isn't Nigerian the word for someone from Nigeria, not someone from Niger?

Columbia. It was one of the first nicknames of the American colonies, and we would only screw British Columbia (sorry pasi, but you don't matter) and Colombia (sorry ansar, but you don't matter)

Well, BC didn't have its modern name at the time... I imagine it would have probably been named Vancouver, just to expound on the whole City/Island thing.

BTW, I feel that this is a very appropriate song for this discussion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29g57XTYgLE

Anyway, if I hear American, I assume 'Resident of the United States of America'. My typical terminology:

The US (Name), The States (Casual Reference), American (Adjective).

 

[Zelig]

Isn't Nigerian the word for someone from Nigeria, not someone from Niger?

People from Nigeria = Nigerians.
People from Niger = Nigeriens.

Like the Montreal Canadiens.

 

[Ansar]

People from Nigeria = Nigerians.
People from Niger = Nigeriens.

Oops...