I am American
The Apple Publications Style Guide [PDF] is the reference document for how to write documentation for Apple products. It is interesting to see that they’re putting online what is mostly meant for internal use. Here’s an interesting tidbit about the word America, which many people should remember:
- America
- American
- Refers to both North and South America. Don’t use when you mean United States. See also U.S.
I am Canadian, therefore I am American. Sounds strange… but it’s true.
Comments
OK then what is a person from the USA? A USAn?
Being politically correct, what a pain. the would would be so much nicer if people didn’t take offense. I might as well wish we didn’t need money, or armies, or governments, or food water and air.
Note that I won’t take offence when someone says American to mean somewone from the United States. But I’m very aware that every one does that in the United States. It just reenforce the feeling that many in that country view themselves as the center of the universe.
There is no recommendation about a replacement word in the Apple Publication Style Guide.
In French, at least where I live in Quebec, we’re using État-Uniens sometimes, which could translate to United Statian. Apparently, we’re not alone.
I’m a US citizen married to a Canadian. The consensus among Canadians I’ve talked to is “American” refers to a US citizen. Wiktionary seems to agree with me and not Apple: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/American
Similarly, I hear people referred to as Europeans and Eastern Europeans all the time.
But the last thing Americans should want to appear to be is ethnocentric.
United Statesian (pronounced States-e-an, took me a couple tries to get that right) seems to be the best solution to me. It doesn’t sound that strange after you say it a few times.
While popularly, American refers to U.S. citizens, the continent defintion is not only technically correct, but many South and Central Americans (who call us estadounidense, I believe) are offended by the exclusive definition. At least, that’s what an Argentinian and a Peruvian exchange student.
The alternative is the once-popular term “Statesman.” I love the sound of it.
Perhaps statesman fell out of popularity around the time of Manifest Destiny? Or women’s rights or political correctness? I hope not the latter, as Statesperson is a bit more wordy in my mind.
The Apple Publications Style Guid is strange im i agree with man :D