Ephemerica

Following the example of other countries and continents, an American should be a person from the American continents. Peruvians, Canadians, Mexicans and Argentinians should all be considered Americans as well those from the US. (Just as Spaniards, Germans and Italians are considered European.) It’s not something people from the US think about too much, since it doesn’t really affect us. That Americans means people from the US is accepted pretty much world wide. In Latin American Spanish, although they refer to people from the US as “Americanos”, it is becoming more common to refer to us as “Estadounidenses”, at least in writing. In English, this presents a problem—”United Statesian” sounds pretty awkward. When using American as an adjective, US substitutes well, e.g., US rock music, but refering to people is more difficult. We have been trying (though I’m sure we’ve slipped many times) to write “people from the US” instead of “Americans”, but we’d like a better solution.

Leave your suggestions (and opinions) in the comments and we will adapt the one we like best. We might even put it to a vote if we get enough suggestions. Winner will get some Oaxacan chocolate, perfect for making hot cocoa or mole or just eating plain!

Here are some of our ideas to get you started:

Unitedstatuvian (as peru goes to peruvian)
Uniteds
Staties

Posted by cindy on April 20th, 2007 | Filed under: General