U.S ≠ America

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How/when did people start referring to the United States alone as "America?"

Since the days of the Italian cartographer "Amerigo Vespucci".

Does any other country have the word "America" as part of it's official name?

No?

Then there is no problem. The United States of America are known collectively and colloquially as "America", "The States", "The U.S.", "The U.S.A.", and "The U.S. of A." Among other names.

The U.S. most definitely IS America!

The link reads that the entire continent was called America, not just the U.S., which is the premise of this thread.

Question not answered.

Australia is both a continent and a nation.

The country called "America" is not the continent named "North America".

Do not confuse or conflate the two.

If you don't like America being called America, then why don't you do something about it? Something other than baiting a thread with a provocatory post, and then disagreeing with anyone who replies with a truthful answer that you don't like.

The U.S. is America!

Deal with it.

.

Last edited by ReticentJaeger on 01 Apr 2015, 7:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

How is that relevant? The U.S. isn't a continent.

You are acting paranoid and need to recognize the difference between your geopolitical hang-ups and my motivation and intention. You feeling provoked does not imply an attempt to provoke you. I don't know what your issues are about the U.S. and America, but kindly stop projecting them onto me.

It is relevant because Australia (the continent) comprises Australia (the nation, whose citizens call themselves "Australians"), Tasmania (the nation, whose citizens call themselves "Tasmanians"), New Guinea (the nation, whose citizens call themselves "Papua New Guineans"), Seram (the nation, whose citizens call themselves "Wemale," "Alune," "Baulu" and "Lumoli"), possibly Timor (the nation, whose citizens call themselves "Timorese") and neighboring islands.

It seems very similar to the continent of North America where the citizens of one nation enjoy an alternative name. In other words, the situation you described isn't restricted to the United States. If the United States is guilty of something in this matter, then so, too, is Australia. But, I see few citizens of either continent complaining that they want to call themselves something other than they do.

Ok here's what I was asking about in the OP: I understand that, originally both North and South America were collectively called "America." Some time later, the U.S. by itself began to be referred to as America. I was asking how that sequence of events transpired rather than just the commonality of names.

So I was confused about the relevance because I don't know whether Australia the nation or Australia the continent came first.

This may not be directly relevant to the OP's purpose, but I have met some people (some Latinos) that didn't like the way the word "American" is often used to mean a citizen of the US. I'm sure that USA people are aware of that, aren't they? When I saw a thread (some forum where I was not a member) discussing that, some were saying that only Latinos were complaining about it and that Canadians couldn't care less.

I strongly doubt that many of us are aware. Giving a damn about the viewpoint of foreigners is probably not a strength of ours.

There are two Americas, one north and one south there's also what's called "Central America", but it's not really a continent, technically I think it's still north. USA stands for the United States *Of* America, but it is only a part of North America. Many Americans do not seem to think or care that Canada or even Mexico are a part of North America. This drives me crazy. They don't give a rat's tail about other cultures and proudly admit it, but if anyone outside the US points out their ignorance they get incredibly butt hurt.

It also bugs me to no end when people in other continents refer to the US as America. Like for example in my Tomadachi Life game my Miis can travel to different countries but the US is called America, but the Miis are always shown with US landmarks in the background. They should have called it USA instead. I have yet to see them travel to Canada so I guess it isn't in the game, and even if it was they would probably show nothing but ice and snow and totem poles, which also drives me foolish. They haven't traveled to Mexico, either.

Of course, I do refer to people from the US as Americans because "United Stations" would sound weird, I guess.

^ So my earlier comment (though not really my own) was inaccurate after all. Some Canadians DO care. That's understandable.

I sometimes use the term "United Statesian", "United Statian", "US people" or something like that when I say it. When I write I often use "USA people" or "US people".

Not giving a damn is sometimes a strength.

I use the term USians.