# Difference between the US and USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592 "2015-06-04T00:28:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/21 "2015-06-04T06:23:33Z")
Lol! xD I imagine it can be even more confusing considering their orange color and flag with no orange color in it. ^^ ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/22 "2015-06-04T06:25:41Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Holland was a vassal state of the Holy Roman Empire for a long time before the Dutch Republic and later Kingdom of the Netherlands as we know it existed. Cool. Didn’t know that! ---
**Author:** ![TallTrees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TallTrees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TallTrees)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/23 "2015-06-04T06:29:52Z")
You probably weren’t looking at the screen carefully - the official name of South Africa is the Republic of S A. RSA. Multiple names for the same country through different languages isn’t new or unique. Those in the country some call Holland (which indeed is the name of provinces and not the whole) call it Nederlands - “low lands” or “low country”. Same meaning when translated to French - “Pays Bas”. Someone from there, in their language, is a Nederlander, not Dutch. Language’s name= Nederlands. Not Dutch. Everyone is very familiar with the variations and untroubled by them. “Germany” in German is Deuschland - Land of the Teutons. In Romance languages it’s a form of Allemania - Allemagne = Land of the Alemany, a different tribe. Germania is the place of yet a third tribe. Austria in German (its language) is Oesterreich or Eastern Nation/Empire. Yet in English it’s “Austria”, taken not from the German form but from the French Autriche, a transliteration. Same is true of cities in Europe. The name in one language can be completely different and unrecognizable from its name in another. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/24 "2015-06-04T07:30:01Z")
> [@TallTrees](#): > > You probably weren’t looking at the screen carefully - the official name of South Africa is the Republic of S A. RSA. It was the “Union of South Africa” from 1910 to 1961. I don’t know whether that was commonly abbreviated to “USA”. My impression is that the usual abbreviation was simply “the Union”. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/25 "2015-06-04T08:44:58Z")
> [@TallTrees](#): > > Those in the country some call Holland (which indeed is the name of provinces and not the whole) call it Nederlands _Nederland_, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Remember\_me](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/82dd89/32.png) [@Remember\_me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Remember_me)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/26 "2015-06-04T10:42:57Z")
> [@TallTrees](#): > > “Germany” in German is Deuschland - Land of the Teutons. In Romance languages it’s a form of Allemania - Allemagne = Land of the Alemany, a different tribe. Germania is the place of yet a third tribe. An in Finnish Germany is called Saksa, referring to the Saxons, yet another Germanic tribe. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/27 "2015-06-04T12:28:29Z")
> [@TallTrees](#): > > Those in the country some call Holland (which indeed is the name of provinces and not the whole) call it Nederlands - “low lands” or “low country”. Same meaning when translated to French - “Pays Bas”. You don’t hear it quite so often these days, but English also has the term “The Low Countries,” which refers to the Netherlands and Belgium collectively (and also occasionally to Luxembourg). ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/28 "2015-06-04T13:39:32Z")
In Spanish is Holanda, or, informally, Paises Bajos (Low Countries). ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/29 "2015-06-04T14:00:00Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Let’s stop beating around the bush and address the underlying lunacy here. > > There are people who call themselves various names, “Sovereign Citizen” and “Freeman On The Land” being the most common, who believe that they can live in society without actually following any of society’s rules that they think are inconvenient. They invent, or have bought into, various schemes which all purport to show the same thing: They can opt out of parts of the law by using various magic phrases and ritualistic practices involving forms and letters which will force the courts to acknowledge that they are in a special class which doesn’t have to follow the law. > > This is idiocy. It is trying to accomplish the impossible, so the details don’t matter. Law isn’t based on magic formulae or rituals or secret codes, it is based on rules applied to achieve a purpose, so if the purpose is invalid (and opting out of a society while continuing to live in it is certainly invalid) no application of those rules will achieve it. > > There are multiple iterations of this idiocy, differing in the details but with the same goal, all being sold by different hucksters to the gullible and the desperate. None of them have ever worked. None of them could ever possibly work. > > All that said, I certainly find investigating this stuff interesting. It’s the same urge that makes me seek out B-movies and schlock TV and so on: It’s so bad it’s good in an entirely unintended fashion. It’s unintentional comedy. > > [A Canadian judge named Rooke wrote a massive legal opinion on this nonsense, which is linked to from this site.](http://ablawg.ca/2012/10/30/the-organized-pseudolegal-commercial-argument-opca-litigant-case/) Google ‘Rooke OPCA’ to find more. I am not disputing what you say and I am not eager to join the tin-foil hat brigade and the few videos I have seen of this stuff show people who I believe are simultaneously deluded and @$$holes. BUT- it doesn’t take too many occasions of seeing lawyers get people or corporations off on technicalities before some people wonder whether they can somehow do the same thing. It doesn’t make a difference that most of those cases are fictional (they are probably MORE influential for being fictional). These people are simply reaching for the same things that they see the wealthy and privileged have (albeit in a childish and clumsy way). IIRC, their methods were actually somewhat efficcacious a decade or two ago, when their offbeat bullying tactics caught unprepared county clerks off guard. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/30 "2015-06-04T14:30:36Z")
It happens far more often than what people think. Especially in systems not based on common law. Not so long ago there was a law that was hastily rewritten for new realities on the road. Because of a technicality police refused to catch speeders and no speeders could get prosecuted. One thing that’s red hot nowdays in Europé is is synthetic drugs. So people keep changing the molecules just a little or even the ingredients and they can’t get to them. Besides wording is a big thing on the international scale now. A lot of the bickering about the Minsk 2 peace process right now is what exactly was signed and what is being followed. The defense of war criminals in Hague is often based on semantics and whether or not a terminology is applicable or not. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/31 "2015-06-04T14:33:58Z")
> [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](#): > > The defense of war criminals in Hague is often based on semantics and whether or not a terminology is applicable or not. That’s true of the defense of any crime, though. It’s perfectly reasonable to argue that the definition of a crime does not apply to what you actually did. Or what you can be proven to have done. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/32 "2015-06-04T14:45:32Z")
No, I’m talking about the semantics of things. I mean they often go through the history of ethnic conflict, of laws, of when they were created, on who they are applicable, of how one can unsubscribe to those laws, etc. Carlos the Jackal and Vojislav Seselj are fantastic in this regard. The later got him self acquitted. So this bollox about you not being able to argue the details about things is just that, bollox. It’s just that ordinary people tend to do it so rarely that they are taken for a joke. And common law also is more about general application than the detail. So bringing up stuff like “sovereign citizen” in the US is probably a bad place. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/33 "2015-06-04T15:09:05Z")
> [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](#): > > It happens far more often than what people think. Especially in systems not based on common law. Not so long ago there was a law that was hastily rewritten for new realities on the road. Because of a technicality police refused to catch speeders and no speeders could get prosecuted. Where and when did this happen? ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/34 "2015-06-04T15:13:51Z")
I’ll PM you. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/35 "2015-06-04T15:45:36Z")
> [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](#): > > I’ll PM you. I don’t know why you couldn’t post it here, but [this is the link you PMed me](http://teknikensvarld.se/avslojande-fri-fart-pa-120-vagar-121676/), with instructions to use Google Translate from Swedish to English. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/36 "2015-06-04T15:49:48Z")
> [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](#): > > No, I’m talking about the semantics of things. I mean they often go through the history of ethnic conflict, of laws, of when they were created, on who they are applicable, of how one can unsubscribe to those laws, etc. Who are _they_? What laws of what countries are you talking about? You’re throwing around a lot of statements that we can’t understand and you won’t back up with specifics. How can we discuss those? > [@](#): > > Carlos the Jackal and Vojislav Seselj are fantastic in this regard. The later got him self acquitted. According to the Wikipedia article about him, his case was dismissed because of delays. That is not an acquittal in any law I am aware of. > [@](#): > > So this bollox about you not being able to argue the details about things is just that, bollox. It’s just that ordinary people tend to do it so rarely that they are taken for a joke. And common law also is more about general application than the detail. So bringing up stuff like “sovereign citizen” in the US is probably a bad place. The law is detail and technicalities and wording. Always has been. It has never been about magic words, though. That’s what sovereign citizens believe and that’s what the blogwriter you asked about believes. Once the magic words theory is revealed, anything else said - anything - can be safely dismissed. I’m pretty sure this is a universal for any type of law anywhere. They don’t seem to understand the different between interpreting the law and thinking they have a magic formula for avoiding it. The vast majority of people do understand this. It’s fundamental to any knowledge. Not understanding cannot be defended in any way. It’s not simply a mistake or simple ignorance. It’s bad thinking. That’s always fatal. ---
**Author:** ![TallTrees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TallTrees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TallTrees)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/37 "2015-06-04T15:50:20Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > _Nederland_, I believe. Yes, thanks for the correction. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/38 "2015-06-04T16:18:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Who are _they_? What laws of what countries are you talking about? > > You’re throwing around a lot of statements that we can’t understand and you won’t back up with specifics. How can we discuss those? > > According to the Wikipedia article about him, his case was dismissed because of delays. That is not an acquittal in any law I am aware of. > > The law is detail and technicalities and wording. Always has been. It has never been about magic words, though. That’s what sovereign citizens believe and that’s what the blogwriter you asked about believes. Once the magic words theory is revealed, anything else said - anything - can be safely dismissed. I’m pretty sure this is a universal for any type of law anywhere. > > They don’t seem to understand the different between interpreting the law and thinking they have a magic formula for avoiding it. The vast majority of people do understand this. It’s fundamental to any knowledge. Not understanding cannot be defended in any way. It’s not simply a mistake or simple ignorance. It’s bad thinking. That’s always fatal. I don’t know what you’re talking about when you speak about magic words. Never Heard about that. What I am telling you is that you indeed can beat a court of law using as you said technicalities and wording. How say beating a case because of “wording” contrasts with beating a case with “magical wording” is something you need to explain to me. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/39 "2015-06-04T16:20:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I don’t know why you couldn’t post it here, but [this is the link you PMed me](http://teknikensvarld.se/avslojande-fri-fart-pa-120-vagar-121676/), with instructions to use Google Translate from Swedish to English. Ah I just didn’t want to out my nationality. So what are you reflections on it? Why did you want me to Post it or PM you with it? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592/40 "2015-06-04T16:27:53Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Well, that’s more complex. There are 2 spaces and an ‘&’ symbol, making it critically different than ‘US’ and ‘USA’. These types of questions are generally best left to experts… Jagshemash. I like you. I like sex. Is _nice._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-the-us-and-usa/721592.md?page=3)