What does it mean to be an American?

[warpus]

Yeah, let's get someone from central or south America in here.

 

[Arwon]

Even beyond that, I'm curious about how it works in other languages with less cultural connection to the two continents in question. Like what do Finns or Germans or Chinese do in their languages?

And what about Dutch or French - would the equivalent adjective to "American" ever refer to Surinamese or French Guianan things or people in those languages?

In Spain, the adjective "americano" didn't necessarily exclusively refer to things or people from the United States (estadounidense avoids that ambiguity although I suppose technically Mexicans are estadounidenses as well). And while I was living over there I did a class called "Historia de América" and it was about the whole thing.

I can only imagine there's even less usage of "americano" to mean people from the US in Spanish-speaking America than there would be in Spain.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Even beyond that, I'm curious about how it works in other languages with less cultural connection to the two continents in question. Like what do Finns or Germans or Chinese do in their languages?

In German it's pretty much the same as in the USA ["Amerikaner" (American) is commonly understood as US citizen. Likewise, "Amerika" is commonly understood as USA.].
Though on the street "Ammi" is probably most common to refer to US citizens. It technically is not more than only using the first two letters of the original word and to give them a grammatic frame suitable to describe people. In practice, it carries a certain devaluation of Americans, fueled by stereo-types (Americans are dumb and fat / America is an evil imperialist in disguise). Though I feel like such Anti-American sentiment has decreased somewhat over the last years.

 

[_random_]

Fun fact: US passports, under the nationality line, say "United States of America", not "American".

Passports are for wimps with the sick desire to not be in America.

 

[Antilogic]

In German it's pretty much the same as in the USA ["Amerikaner" (American) is commonly understood as US citizen. Likewise, "Amerika" is commonly understood as USA.].
Though on the street "Ammi" is probably most common to refer to US citizens. It technically is not more than only using the first two letters of the original word and to give them a grammatic frame suitable to describe people. In practice, it carries a certain devaluation of Americans, fueled by stereo-types (Americans are dumb and fat / America is an evil imperialist in disguise). Though I feel like such Anti-American sentiment has decreased somewhat over the last years.

Well, glad to know the hatred of the US is at least declining. That's about all the good news we have.

Passports are for wimps with the sick desire to not be in America.

You can't really appreciate it unless you've been away for a little bit.

I know the first thing I am doing once I get off the plane in January is going to Four Burgers and getting myself an extra-bacon cheeseburger with 50/50 fries. And a free-refills soda.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

Dis means Dutch of the opposite hemisphere.

 

[Traitorfish]

I know it is for people from the India-Pakistan area, but not for Arabs or Iranians.

Yes and no. It depends who you talk to and in what context. (Turks are always just "Turks", though. I think we basically think of them as "Greeks: Muslim Edition".)