this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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I've heard them called "Americans" before.
That's cool. They are USAians, yanks, or seppos to me.
"American" can refer to anyone in the western hemisphere
Yet it is virtually never used that way in modern times, and if someone said "American" you'd know exactly what they meant.
i have seen american being used to refer to someone living in either South or Nord America enough to need to figure out if someone is talking about the 2 continents or about a single country when they are using the term
Maybe in the US. But that's "USian defaultism."
Also, in the US I find people who identify as "American" are laden with connotations of jingo-nationalism.
I'm a US citizen, but I don't identify as an "american." My loyalty is to the constitution, not some pseudo-patriotic flag fascism.
US? US what? United States of Mexico? United States of Matsya? If we're being difficult and aloof just to be difficult and aloof, lets really lean into it. When you say "US" it could be a number of places.
The United States in almost all contexts refers to the United States of America, and is understood as such. That's why the official designation for the United States Government is USG, not USAG.
And before you say "HA! United States of America! Gotcha!" No shit. "United States of America" species that it's referring to the United States, which are located in the Americas. As opposed to simply "America" which could also refer to North America, South America, Meso America, and doesn't automatically mean "the United States of America."
In case you still don't get it, you wouldn't say "California" refers to the "University of California" simply because it's the "University of what? Oh that's right, California!" That would be a braindead take.
If you're in California however and you say "The University," people know you mean "The University of California," and would only be asking "Which campus?"
When there's another nation called the "United States of [something]" then we can talk about "the US" being difficult and aloof terminology.
United Scammers and Assholes
I named two examples, a country and a state. But I'll leave you to pick and choose and be super smart and progressive.
You mean the "United Mexican States" and the "Matsya States Union"?
Yeah, that's a stretch. Neither of those are ever abbreviated "US." It's not ambiguous.
That's the case in the English language, where "Usian" is usually interpreted as a derogative adjective, but how else would you translate "[IT] statunitense" as opposed to "[IT] americano"?
I'm pretty sure the Spanish language has something similar to the Italian word, and I suspect that's true for some other romance languages.
I myself use "American" instead of "Usian", because the latter feels... artificial, but at the same time insisting on the former feels like textbook UnitedStatesOfAmerican exceptionalism.
I suppose I wouldn't know because I'm not American, I'm American.
EDIT: I mean honestly, no one living in the greater North or South Americas would say the above while speaking English. This whole thing ironically smacks of a first world problem a (perhaps self-hating) American (or at very least Westerner) came up with. All the rest of us surrounding their country know our identities.
Assuming you meant "specifically not from the USA" instead of the second "American", with that being a typo (feel free to clarify)...
... I loosely mentioned US exceptionalism, but I didn't know American Continent exceptionalism was even a thing - with the benefit of the doubt, I still don't.
"Statiunitense" is an Italian word that I first learned in a formal setting as an adult (18+) from a Fineco [finecobank.com] employee, which loosely implies that it's an appropriate way to refer to something from / belonging_to the USA in a small fraction of the geopolitical landscape...
... hence my previous comment. It is possible to perform grievous acts of TheLandOfTheFree Exceptionalism without living in the Land Of The Free *, mind you.
"Usian" (USian, wgaf about capitalization) is as valid of a word as "Japan" is, refering to 日本 (pronounced "Nippon" - [source]):
some languages have words that semantically refer to YOUR interpretation of "American", WHILE having different single-word equivalents to what you would say when refering to either the North American continent or the South American Continent.
... with the latter two occasionally known as, y'know, "America".
Why bother differentiating between "American but not outside the jurisdiction of the United States of America" and "Either South American or North American, regardless of affiliation to the United States Of America", when you can just either say "American" OR "Usian"?
* 60 seconds later edit:
For many non-adult, probably autisticly coded years I looked up to the USA as a cool nation. I am no exception to Super Earth exceptionalism.