Does it annoy you when people just say "Saudi" to refer to the country?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Is it reasonable that it grates my nerves something fierce when people refer to Saudi Arabia as “Saudi?”

The “Saudi” is a freakin…ummrm…grammar…uh…adjective or something. Using just that portion is like referring to the United States as “United”.

The example that touched off my ire today is a headline that says “Saudi criticises world reaction to maid’s beheading.”

Not “Saudi officials” or “Saudi spokespersn”. Just “Saudi”.

I know, it’s common usage, like when I say “Hey, pass me the ranch” you know that I mean ranch dressing. Still, it bugs me.

I’m going to go say everything perfectly today, as I always do, which gives me the right to criticize how others speak/write.

2

To be honest, I’ve never heard anyone use “Saudi” that way. Maybe I don’t read as much news as I think I do. If I read the headline you cited as your example, I would have assumed they meant a single Saudi person who made that criticism, not the country as a whole.

3

I used to notice it a lot with Gulf War I vets and military people, but I still run across it. On the topic of the headline, I did look in to the article and it doesn’t seem to refer to a specific person.

4

There isn’t a helluva lot of difference between Saudia Arabia and the Saudi royal family, so “the Saudis” is probably accurate in most usages. I’ve never heard anyone call the country just “Saudi,” though. Sounds like returning soldier shorthand.

5

I’ve only heard the term used to describe the people of that country, not the country itself.

6

My uncle fled the U.S. to work in Saudi Arabia for a while. When he got back, he wrote a book called “It’s Saudi Duty Time” (unpublished so far). That was in the 80’s and the usage was common enough even then. I never thought there was anything wrong with it nor did it occur to me that there might be.

7

I don’t think I’ve heard that and I wouldn’t say it myself, but I wouldn’t care. Call it a hellhole, because that’s what it actually is for women.

8

I think I’ve only ever heard one person use it, and he was a Gulf War I vet. It grated on me slightly, but I think that was because that guy was a bonehead and many things he did grated on me.

9

In that case it strikes me as a perfectly acceptable usage. There are plenty of ethnic Arabs who don’t live in Saudi Arabia. Calling citizens of that country Saudis seems a reasonable locution. Nay, a wise one.

10

With all the pejorative nicknames actual civilised nations are given, you’re upset that the worst thing people call Saudi Arabia is Saudi?

And gays, transsexuals, non-muslims, not-hardcore-enough muslims…

11

Absolutely.

12

It annoys me, except for military folks for whom it is standard usage.

13

I guess we can change the name of it to “Intolerant Arabia”, then we’d just be able to refer to it as “Intolerant” and everybody would know where we were referring to.

14

Strikes me as a reasonable descriptor, the Country is ruled by the al-Saud family ie Saudis

Capt

15

It’s a headline. Headlines abbreviate thing. “Saudi Arabia” takes up far too much space. As does “Saudi Government.” It’s like Twitter, only fewer characters.

16

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17

I seem to recall the military sitcom “Major Dad”, which was on during the first Gulf war, used the locution “Saudi” to refer to Saudi Arabia.

18

United States is a shortening of the United States of America, does that bother you as well? Do you always say “The United States of America”?

Shortening of words and phrases is such a common human trait, I am not sure why it bothers you so much. :slight_smile:

19

I hear it pretty often with foreign policy types. I always assumed there was some good reason for it.

20

I lived there for a while as a kid in the 1960s. Dad was former USAF, and everyone called the county Saudi, not Saudi Arabia. We also referred to the US as the States.