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606 points saikatsg | 13 comments | | HN request time: 0.199s | source | bottom
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pif ◴[] No.43935052[source]
Please, correct the stupidly wrong title: the last Pope was an American!
replies(1): >>43935101 #
1. c-c-c-c-c ◴[] No.43935101[source]
No he wasn't.
replies(1): >>43936345 #
2. 4ggr0 ◴[] No.43936345[source]
Argentinia is in America, you know. Maybe not in North America or the US, but certainly in America.
replies(2): >>43939124 #>>43950896 #
3. jsphweid ◴[] No.43939124[source]
> In common English usage, America is a short-form name for the United States of America.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(disambiguation)

4. nozzlegear ◴[] No.43950896[source]
Since we're using English, Argentina is in South America. People in Argentina speak Spanish and would call themselves americanos or sudamericanos. But in actuality they call themselves argentinos because everyone on earth understands that American unambiguously refers to citizens of the USA.
replies(2): >>43950983 #>>43951076 #
5. defrost ◴[] No.43950983{3}[source]
> because everyone on earth understands that American unambiguously refers to citizens of the USA.

With the exception of the Oxford English Dictionary and several others, of course.

replies(1): >>43951038 #
6. nozzlegear ◴[] No.43951038{4}[source]
You're using a dictionary, its literal job is to show you every possible definition of a word — not the most common sense definition. Maybe try urban dictionary or even Wikipedia?
replies(1): >>43951048 #
7. defrost ◴[] No.43951048{5}[source]
You claimed: " everyone on earth understands that American unambiguously refers to citizens of the USA "

This is false. As you have just acknowledged in your own comment.

The OED has multiple on record in major print publications examples of use of the word american in multiple contexts. One of those is specific to the United States of America which is the more common usage.

Not the only, and not always unambiguously so.

replies(1): >>43953682 #
8. owebmaster ◴[] No.43951076{3}[source]
Hello no! If we are speaking English, Argentinians are Americans and so am I, from Brazil. The only thing that is unambiguously an US thing is the concept of calling people from the Americas latinos. Even many Europeans find it stupid.
replies(1): >>43953787 #
9. nozzlegear ◴[] No.43953682{6}[source]
> As you have just acknowledged in your own comment.

I didn't acknowledge that. Instead you told me to check the dictionary which is not at all relevant to what I said. If somebody holding a dictionary came up to you and told you they're American, would you assume they meant they're from the US, or somewhere across two vast continents? Which is more likely? I think you know the answer even if you want to be pedantic about it.

10. nozzlegear ◴[] No.43953787{4}[source]
But when you introduce yourself, do you call yourself Brazilian or American? I think almost everyone would use their nationality, not their continent, to avoid confusion. In English, the two continents are just that: two continents; North and South America, not "America."

> The only thing that is unambiguously an US thing is the concept of calling people from the Americas latinos.

Latino is a term for people with Latin American heritage, meaning those with Spanish or Portuguese linguistic and cultural roots. You're fine with calling yourself American in English but not Latino?

replies(1): >>43954507 #
11. owebmaster ◴[] No.43954507{5}[source]
> You're fine with calling yourself American in English but not Latino

Exactly! Latino is a thing created my the US to separate themselves from us. But we all have a very similar history, colonized countries, native Americans almost eradicated then assimilated, slavery, migration from Europe and Asia. The only difference is that the US got richer.

> In English, the two continents are just that: two continents; North and South America, not "America."

In Portuguese too so most of the times I refer to us as South Americans but we are as Americans as people from the US. This is all linguistics/sociology so if/when the pushback is big enough we might be able to eradicate this stupid "latino" concept (that is wrong because there are countries included that speak English, dutch, creole and other languages that are not latinas)

replies(1): >>43955948 #
12. nozzlegear ◴[] No.43955948{6}[source]
> Exactly! Latino is a thing created my the US to separate themselves from us. But we all have a very similar history, colonized countries, native Americans almost eradicated then assimilated, slavery, migration from Europe and Asia. The only difference is that the US got richer.

Maybe I'm off base here, but are you aware that most Hispanic people in the US proudly call themselves Latino? It's not a term that Americans use as a mark of separation, it's a cultural/identity thing. You can be Latino American and American American (like from the US), they're not mutually exclusive.

I might be missing your point though, are you saying that the US uses the term differently than the rest of Central and South America?

replies(1): >>43956249 #
13. owebmaster ◴[] No.43956249{7}[source]
> I might be missing your point though, are you saying that the US uses the term differently than the rest of Central and South America?

At least the people from Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia don't use the term latino to identify (South) Americans. I guess it is more common from Colombia to Mexico.