# Sino, Franco, ummm....Americo??

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 18, 2007, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582 "2007-05-18T12:34:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BACI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@BACI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BACI)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582/1 "2007-05-18T12:34:57Z")

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If “sino” means “Chinese”, “franco” means “French”, and “Austro” means Austrian, what shorthand term is used for “American”?

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**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582/2 "2007-05-18T12:36:04Z")

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Yank?

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**Author:** ![Tibidabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@Tibidabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibidabo)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582/3 "2007-05-18T13:08:14Z")

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From what I can make out, yeah… Americo seems to be used

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**Author:** ![Tibidabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@Tibidabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibidabo)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582/4 "2007-05-18T13:13:35Z")

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Google search brought up plenty of examples, but they all seemed to appear in blogs.

Here’s a book though:

[http://www.amazon.com/Black-Colonialism-Americo-Liberian-Struggle-Hinterland/dp/0865319928](http://www.amazon.com/Black-Colonialism-Americo-Liberian-Struggle-Hinterland/dp/0865319928)

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582/5 "2007-05-18T13:50:35Z")

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Hmmm… context might be important. Completely separate from the more-or-less-Latino usage, “Anglo-” is the standard prefix for either the United Kingdom as a nation state, England as a “nation” in the other sense, or “English speaking” including U.S., Canada, and Australia et al., together or separately.

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**Author:** ![Tibidabo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@Tibidabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibidabo)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582/6 "2007-05-18T14:12:27Z")

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[QUOTE=Polycarp]  
Hmmm… context might be important. Completely separate from the more-or-less-Latino usage, “Anglo-” is the standard prefix for either the United Kingdom as a nation state, England as a “nation” in the other sense, or “English speaking” including U.S., Canada, and Australia et al., together or separately.  
[/QUOTE]

Actually… yeah… good point **Polycarp**

An ‘American’ can be anybody from Canada to Argentina

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**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sino-franco-ummm-americo/404582/7 "2007-05-18T14:29:42Z")

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I think the term for this is a **combining form**.

Here’s a list: **WARNING PDF**  
[http://www.spellingbee.com/pre\_suf\_comb.pdf](http://www.spellingbee.com/pre_suf_comb.pdf)

The list shows Amer- as the combining form for American. Now that I think of it, weren’t the offspring of American GI’s and Vietnamese women referred to as Amer-Asian children?