What term do you use when refering to that country whose capital is Washington D.C.?
I think IMHO is the place for this thread, as it’s a poll. And I hope this subject hasn’t been done before, but searching wasn’t very helpful.
Earlier today I was talking about current events with some co-workers, and I noticed that we all used the term “United States” or “The States” - except for the one lady who is from there, and she refers to it as “America”. I’ve noticed this before in some threads on the SDMB, where it seems like Dopers (who I’m pretty sure are American) tend to refer to it as America more often than posters who I’m sure aren’t from America do.
However, it also seems like no matter what term people use to describe the country, they call it’s citizens Americans. Perhaps United States-ians is just stupid?
So how do you refer to “that country”?
I’m also curious as to how the usage demographics would break down.
Reasons why I think I might tend to use United States instead of America are:
[ul]I’m not American. I’m Canadian. So is calling it the United States a Canadian thing? Or is it a non-American thing? How do people from Europe/Asia/Africa refer to it?[/ul]
[ul]Perhaps it’s a regional thing even within America? Do people from Alaska, California, Maine and Texas refer to it only as America?[/ul]
[ul]Or maybe it’s an urban/non-urban thing? I’ve only ever lived in major cities - maybe rural Canadians refer to it as America?[/ul]
[ul]Or even an age thing? I’m mid-twenties, and I don’t ever remember hearing a friend near my age call it America. My parents (early 50s) almost always call it The States or the United States, but also use the term America.[/ul]
So what’s been your experience? And where are you from? Have you ever lived in America? Anything else to contribute?
Everyone I know uses the United States as the regular term for our country. America is more of a literary term that is used in speeches and, of course, in songs like “America the Beautiful”. We do call ourselves Americans however. There is really no other term for that.
I’ve seen some people get snippy about referring to the nation as America, claiming that “America” refers to what used to be called “the New World.” To that I say horseshit. North America is North America, South America is South America, and the two continents together are the Americas.
In my mind, “the United States” (or “the U.S.”) is the name to use when referring to this country as a geopolitical entity. To make an example of one of the questions at the end of the OP, it would generally sound wrong to me to say “I live in America” and I’ve always perceived this type of usage as more common among foreigners.
I allow for “America” in political speeches, where it seems to be used almost exclusively, and in some cases where it refers more to the country as a cultural rather than political entity. I don’t really use “America” myself, though.
Seriously, I call this country “the US” about 90% of the time. The other 10% I might call it America or the United States. IME, foreigners are more likely to call it America. When I was studying abroad, I temporarily picked this up - a friend of mine went back to the US for a vacation, and for some reason I was telling my dad an anecdote over the phone that he’d shared with me.
Me: During break, my friend Josh went to America…
Dad: “America”? You make it sound like some exotic place!
I live in the United States or the U.S.A. I’m an American. That’s my standard usage. I may resort to other constructions, like “U.S. citizen,” when it’s necessary to speak to or of someone from Canada or Latin America, who have equal rights to the usage “American” as I and my countrymen do. But that’s done for courtesy and clarity,. not out of a sense of “political correctness.”
I live in “the States,” when I go abroad. I use “America” at home, mostly because it’s less clumsy and ugly than “United States.” I think I would use “America” overseas, too, except that I picked up “the States” from an English friend of mine.
“America” is a very beautiful and poetic word, although “the United States” may be more true to the original spirit of the nation.
Canadian here, and I always refer to the US as “The States” as well. Lived near the border with Maine when I was younger. The States is the land of cheap gas (comparatively) and cheap booze and smokes (back when we were allowed to bring such goods back into Canada without duty). Strangely enough, no one ever said they were going to Maine on these trips - they were “going across the line” to “The States”.
I say “the US.” A few years ago, it was “the U.S.” but the internet age threw out the unnecessary periods. Sometimes, I say “America,” if I want to be heart-warming or poetic-sounding.
I’m from Spain, I call the country Estados Unidos or “los U Ese A” in Spanish, United States in English. America is the continent.
Mexicans and Brazilians like to remind people that they, too are “united states”, but unlike them “gringos”, they have non-confusing names.
I call US-citizens americans.
If they don’t speak Spanish I may refer to them as gringos or anglos (no matter what color they come in: the Hispanic definition is that if you speak only English, you are anglo). Canadians are canadians, anybody born south of the border and whose country of birth I do not know is sudamericano (or sudaca for short) and I will ask “where are you from” at the first possible occasion. Uruguayans have the same accent as Argentinians but hate being mistaken for Argentinian, so it’s better to ask - an Argentinian may anwer “why, I’m che, what, can’t you tell?” but he’ll laugh at my explanation about Uruguayans and find it just fine. Che is a nick for Argentinians but you’re not supposed to use it first-thing, same as you wouldn’t just adress some “WASx” on the street as “hey gringo!”
Every american I know calls his country America; every non-american I know, the United States. Mexicans may even call it “los Estados” (the States), which some Americans will also do (but as an “also”, if you ask them “where are you from?” they answer “America”). Since all of them are used to travelling abroad or to foreign visitors, we have had this particular conversation quite often.
I could say one thing and it may be the other. I’ve never paid that much attention to it. My guess is that most of us from The United States of America use the term “America” and “American” a lot. The first time I went to Canada, someone in customs asked where I was from and I said “America”. I blushed but she didn’t seem to notice what I said or that I blushed. Does it bother anyone? Does anyone ever think that we do it for any reason other out of pure habit? Is there some underlying connotation that dwells in my subconscious mind? It seems natural to me that a Canadian would say “the States” instead of “Maine”, just the same as I’d say “Canada” instead of “British Columbia”. If a Canadian said “I’m going to America.” that would seem very strange and if a European said it I’d wonder which country.
I usually say *US * or USA. Whenever I meet someone with an obvious North American accent, I always ask “what part of North America do you come from?”, so that I’m not offending anyone.