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If you call a British citizen a Briton, a French citizen a Frenchman and a citizen of Canada a Canadian...

and considering that someone from Asia is and Asian and someone from Africa is a African.

What do you call someone from the United States of America?

It can't be an American, as most Americans live outside the United States in the rest of North and South America.

If there is an official term, will people understand you when you use it?

Mirte
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    Yes, it can be "an American". And it actually is. As you well know. – RegDwigнt Feb 01 '17 at 10:37
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    A collection of previous questions on the subject. – RegDwigнt Feb 01 '17 at 10:45
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    This is genuine question, from a 17 year old South African. The intention is not inflammatory. We use 'American' here for people in th U.S. too, but I wanted a more accurate term as it is acknowledged that the U.S. is not the only American Country. No offense was intended. – Mirte Feb 01 '17 at 11:00
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    It's a touchy subject, and the question was closed to avoid discussions. You have five answers, and not one has said using American is wrong, or inappropriate. If you say the word Americans, the British will say people from the US, while the rest of Europe will also think the same but talk about S.American citizens. – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '17 at 11:05
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    There is no short, unambiguous colloquial English term, nor is there an "official" one shorter than "citizen of the USA". I understand that some South Americans use something like "estadian" (don't know the precise spelling), as meaning "someone from los Estados Unidos", but that doesn't translate very well. – Hot Licks Feb 01 '17 at 13:12
  • The US is not the only American country. It is, however, the only country that has "America" in its name. When you say "American", nobody at all will think of a Chilean or a Canadian. Everyone will think of, well, an American. And this is not unusual in the least. There is no such country as France, Russia, or Germany, either. These are all shorthands. And they are all fine. – RegDwigнt Feb 01 '17 at 16:42
  • @RegDwigнt arguably, France and Germany, at least, are not shorthands but the real geographical designators of the countries themselves. The fuller names merely denote the governments of those countries, identifying the political form of the government. In line with this, the ISO does its best to avoid political designations in the standard abbreviations for country names (for example, they accepted RS for Serbia only because SE, SR, SB, SI, SJ, and SA, every possible combination of S with another letter from Serbia or Srbija, were all already in use). – phoog Oct 01 '17 at 17:26

5 Answers5

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Use U.S. citizen if you want to be more specific:

  • Citizenship identifies an individual's national origin. It defines his/her rights and responsibilities to that country (nationality). Most people have only one country of citizenship, but some can have dual nationality. U.S. citizens can be native-born, foreign-born, or naturalized. They owe their allegiance to the United States and are entitled to its protection.

From www.USA.gov

  • Though I'm vaguely recalling that a few other countries have (perhaps briefly) called themselves "the United States of X" over the years. – Hot Licks Feb 01 '17 at 13:14
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I have heard that people who live in South America also often refer to themselves as Americans. That's absolutely true. But when we're speaking, it's usually clear from the context which Americans we're talking about. However, if you do want to be specific, you can always say a citizen of the United States of America instead of an American.

Another possible way to differentiate the two groups of Americans would be to refer to them as either South Americans (Brazilians, Chileans, et cetera) and North Americans (U.S. Americans and Canadians).

But, to be perfectly honest, the term American has a well-established connotation that it means someone from the United States everywhere in the English-speaking world. So, in reality, you would simply say American to refer to someone from the U.S. and you would say Canadian, Brazilian or South American in all other cases.

Michael Rybkin
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  • North American could be Canadian, no? – mplungjan Feb 01 '17 at 09:30
  • That's right. Canadians are also North Americans. – Michael Rybkin Feb 01 '17 at 09:34
  • @user69786 - No not at all. Canadians are Canadians. Canada is a different country to America and the US. – Chris Rogers Feb 01 '17 at 09:41
  • @user69786 - That is like telling a Scottish person that they are English (from England) – Chris Rogers Feb 01 '17 at 09:42
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    Not at all what? What are you talking about? Did I ever say that Canadians were Americans? I said Canadians are North Americans. – Michael Rybkin Feb 01 '17 at 09:44
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    Can we please remember poor Mexico here! As far as I know Mexico and the rest of Central America are also part of North America... – Mirte Feb 01 '17 at 09:56
  • @Mirte - True. America is a continent but also referred to by many as being a country. See my answer for more – Chris Rogers Feb 01 '17 at 10:01
  • @Mirte but some British citizens are Irish, would you also call them Britons? Many of them would object. – phoog Feb 01 '17 at 10:21
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    @Chris Chris, telling Canadians that they are North Americans is not like telling Scots they are English, its like telling us we are Britons, which we are. Britain is the geographical entity, Scotland the political one, likewise North America and Canada. – Spagirl Feb 01 '17 at 10:22
  • @Spagirl - The single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England (which had already comprised the present-day countries of England and Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland by the 1707 Acts of Union. Therefore Britain is a political entity whereas Scotland is a geographical one. – Chris Rogers Feb 01 '17 at 10:28
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    @Chris and where do you think the Kingdom of Great Britain got its name? From the island on which it is found: the Island of Great Britain. That is a geographical entity. You have shown how Great Britain is also a political entity, which is true, but how is Scotland a geographical entity? – phoog Feb 01 '17 at 10:38
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    @Chris There is a perfectly acceptable definition of Britain as 'the island containing England, Wales, and Scotland', it's the 'kingdom' bit which makes it political and which is why I did not refer to the UK in this context.. – Spagirl Feb 01 '17 at 10:54
  • @Chris Stating that calling Canadians North Americans is “like telling a Scottish person that they are English” is ludicrously false. It is like telling a Frenchman that he is European or a Japanese that he is Asian. North America is a continent; England is not. And Scotland, being a country, is most certainly a political term, while Britain (unlike Kingdom of Great Britain) is not. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 01 '17 at 17:26
  • Note that the "Kingdom of Great Britain" is a historical entity, not a current one. It ceased to exist for any practical purpose, when the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" was created on 1 January 1801. But we don't expect foreigners to get that sort of detail right! – alephzero Oct 01 '17 at 16:45
  • @phoog As well as mixing up the "Kingdom of Great Briton with "the United Kingdom", there are no British citizens who are Irish - apart from people with dual citizenship, of course. "Ireland" and "Northern Ireland" are two different political entities - they don't even have the same official currency, for example! (Ireland uses the Euro, Northern Ireland uses the Pound Sterling). – alephzero Oct 01 '17 at 16:49
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Yes, American is still appropriate:

  1. a citizen of the U.S.

(source: Merriam-Webster)

From the context, it should be clear whether you mean just the U.S.A. or one or both continents.

Glorfindel
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    Isn't America just one continent? Is it divided into two? – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '17 at 10:21
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    @Mari-LouA In any world where Europe and Asia are two continents, dividing America into two (as we are taught here in North America, at least) seems far more natural than treating it as one. It's not even possible to drive between North and South America. – phoog Feb 01 '17 at 10:23
  • @phoog let me get this clear, geography has never been my forte, so N.America is one continent, and S.America is a second continent. As for the driving analogy, does it hold? The UK is an island that only recently built the chunnel (with the French), but it's always been in Europe. What about Iceland? Is that its own continent? No, it isn't. – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '17 at 10:27
  • Well, TIL that it is two separate continents. North America and South America are treated as separate continents in the seven-continent model. However, they may also be viewed as a single continent known as America or the Americas – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '17 at 10:31
  • @Mari-LouA my point is that continents are usually separated or nearly separated by oceans or other bodies of water. North and South America are connected by a narrow isthmus that is so swampy it's not practical to build a road through it. Europe and Asia are separated by ... an inland sea and a mountain range. It's hard to know even where to draw the border. Yet Europe and Asia are generally considered two continents, except in some disciplines such as geology where they are one: Eurasia. Looking at Eurasia and the Americas, the latter looks far more like two continents than the former. – phoog Feb 01 '17 at 10:35
  • I've always thought of Mexicans as being Latinos, belonging to S.America. So, where the heck is Canada? Up north, north, North America? (I'm joking) – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '17 at 10:38
  • @Mari-LouA in school in the US I was taught that Mexico is part of North America. The NAFTA people obviously agree. There is certainly no obvious continental boundary between the US and Mexico. To refer to the Latino countries we tend to say "Latin America," which is a cultural/political term, of course. – phoog Oct 01 '17 at 17:17
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It seems you compare the term American to the terms Asian and African but most people will understand

  • American for a person with a U.S. passport inside or outside the U.S.
  • American/U.S. citizen if you want to be more specific
  • South-American (or Venezuelean, Colombian etc.) or Canadian for the other citizens of the American continent

Do note that the Asian term also can be split into Asian, East-Asian and South-east Asian

mplungjan
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  • The two are not comparable. "Asia" and "Africa" are not countries - despite the fact that some US politicians think otherwise. – alephzero Oct 01 '17 at 16:55
  • OP compared - I just followed through - America is a continent as well – mplungjan Oct 01 '17 at 16:56
  • What about Mexico, which is on the North American continent, and the Central American countries, which most in the Americas consider to be neither North American nor South American? – phoog Oct 01 '17 at 17:12
  • What about it? I have not mentioned it. – mplungjan Oct 01 '17 at 17:13
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To some people, national identity is very important and cannot be mixed. I am England born and bred and I know of others who are the same who are proud of that fact and would never consider themselves to be British but English. There are Welsh people who identify themselves as Welsh and some Scottish people are Scottish.

Canada is not part of America. The United States is formed of 50 states south of the US/Canadian border and South America is south of the US.

Generally speaking it would be correct, just like English, Welsh and Scottish people can be classed as British, but nationality speaking, Americans are from the US, people from Wales are Welsh and people from Scotland are Scottish. I have spoken to people from Puerto Rico who refer to themselves as Puerto Rican.

You need to be careful. Try not to mix nationals with other nationalities.

--Edit for additional info--

In the present climate in the UK there are people who want to break the union between UK and Europe on a political basis. We are European geographically and always will be but the UK does not form Europe. It is part of Europe.

The UK is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" and Great Britain (or Britain) is England, Wales and Scotland.

Chris Rogers
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    This does not answer the question, although it does a great job to explain why OP need to ask it. – Jylo Feb 01 '17 at 10:28
  • “Canada is not part of America” — No. America (also the Americas) is a land mass with adjoining islands that stretches from Alaska and Nunavut in the north to the Tierra del Fuego in the south, and Canada is entirely within it. That makes Canada part of America. Canada is not part of the United States of America, but while American can usually (though not always) safely be used to refer to the US, the same is not true of America, barring context. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 01 '17 at 17:35
  • @JanusBahsJacquet no, the Americas is two continents, North America and South America. – phoog Oct 01 '17 at 17:13
  • @phoog Continent is not the same as land mass. Europe and Asia are also two continents despite being part of the same land mass. True, the Panama Canal has split America in two, so technically it’s no longer a single land mass; but it was up until quite recently in history. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Oct 01 '17 at 17:17
  • @JanusBahsJacquet all of my dictionaries define continent in terms like "large land mass," and those that list the continents include North America and South America separately, so I'm unconvinced by your comment. Furthermore, any system in which the Panama canal could be considered to have split the "single" continent of America in two must be a system in which Europe and Asia do not exist as separate continents. – phoog Oct 01 '17 at 17:33
  • @phoog Continents are identified by convention more than geography; ‘land mass’ is a geographic term. North and South America are different continents because it was at some point decided they should be. Europe and Asia for the same reason. New Guinea is considered part of Australasia rather than Asia by convention. Your own definitions agree that continent and land mass are not synonymous. I see no problem defining America as a (historically) contiguous stretch of land that contains two continents, just like the Eurasian land mass does. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Oct 01 '17 at 17:42
  • @JanusBahsJacquet my principal problem with that definition of America is that it doesn't reflect the actual use of the word. Nobody I know understands that word that way. – phoog Oct 01 '17 at 17:47
  • @phoog Plenty of people that I know do use it that way—that’s why I said “barring context” in my initial comment. It’s common enough to call the US America, but it’s also (in my experience) reasonably common to call the Americas seen as one America. This is even more the case with the adjective. Saying that Canadians are not American sounds absolutely absurd to me, like saying Brits aren’t European (yes, I realise many Brits would say just that). Describing Canadians as Americans is also problematic—that’s the whole problem. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Oct 01 '17 at 17:52