From Spain here, when we want to speak about USA people we use the term “yankee” or “gringo” rather than “american” cause our americans arent from USA, that terms are correct or mean other things?

  • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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    13 hours ago

    Now, using “Americans” to refer to everyone over here did exist before the U.S., going back to at least the 1500s. I think that was only in use in English, I’ve never looked up what was used in French and Spanish back then. But since the USA came into being as country, it has been the default term for US citizens colloquially.

    Confidently wrong. US leaders didn’t start referring to its citizens as americans or its country as america until ~1900.

    I know you won’t read the book I linked, and are going off of white-supremacist vibes, so here’s an article for everyone else about the history of this imperialist usage.

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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      13 hours ago

      IDGAF about what leaders called it/us. That’s almost irrelevant.

      But other people in the world absolutely were using the term American to refer to citizens of the US before the 1900s.

      I’m also not sure why you insist on staying on this tangent when the conversation was about current usage.

      • Grapho@lemmy.ml
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        5 hours ago

        other people in the world absolutely were using the term American to refer to citizens of the US before the 1900s.

        I mean, a few, I imagine. There’s always been people saying shit wrong. Would help your case if you actually had a source and not just a vibe to refute an evidence based position.

        By population, however, most of the world isn’t the anglosphere. Spanish speakers, which is most of America, by and large call you “Estadunidenses” whenever it’s not “gringo”. A good chunk of us also speak English and object to gringos colonizing “america” much like Indonesians or Indians or Malaysians probably would have if Japan decided it was “Asia”.

        You might not have decided that we speak English, but the same government that made it a necessity for us in the global south to learn the language is the one that decided to steal that term. Language matters.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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        13 hours ago

        Getting you to read is impossible. Stop white-supremacist vibing and actually read about its historical usage. I even linked you an article, which I know you didn’t read.

        It’s so frustrating to read books about the long history of these things and then have confidently wrong children try to correct you with a vibes-based analysis.