[throwaway894345]

This comment seems confused. In English, "the Americas" isn't a continent nor are North America and South America "sub-continents"; rather, North America is a continent, South America is a continent, "the Americas" refers unambiguously to the collection of both continents, and "America" refers unambiguously to the United States of America (and "American" refers unambiguously to a US citizen). The only chauvinism occurs when speakers of other languages insist that the English language adopt their model of continents and the corresponding toponyms and demonyms (for example, many Spanish speakers use "Americano" to refer to inhabitants of the Americas, and since that word looks like "American" in English, many of these Spanish speakers believe English speakers should modify the meaning of "American" to mirror their "Americano").

Using "Europe" to refer to the EU member states in English is different because "Europe" in English traditionally refers to the entire continent and referring to the EU as "Europe" introduces ambiguity. I don't think this ambiguity is a significant problem and I wouldn't call it "chauvinism" but perhaps I could be convinced otherwise.

[lhorie]

> "America" refers unambiguously to the United States of America

When people say "Columbus discovered America", it most certainly is referring to the entire landmass and surrounding islands (he technically landed in the Bahamas).

[msm_]

By the way, one thing I always wondered? Are Canadians annoyed by that usage, or more or less accepted that they're not "American" in English? (I would especially appreciate if a Canadian shared their thoughts about this)

[lhorie]

(I'm a canadian citizen, born in South America)

My two cents is US people are the ones who have an unusual take on the word "America". Outside the US, it's not very idiomatic to call the country "America", or even "USA". "US" is more common (and in both Spanish and Portuguese, it's almost always called "Estados Unidos").

The term "american" is mainstream both in Canada and elsewhere. I imagine that's probably at least partly a function of "unitedstatesman" being too much of a mouthful. (BTW, if you think that's a ridiculous word, in portuguese "estadounidense" is an actual word, albeit with a connotation of being something a "woke" person might say).

[throwaway894345]

That seems likely to be a vestige and not emblematic of a general pattern.

[coutego]

> many Spanish speakers use "Americano" to refer to inhabitants of the Americas, and since that word looks like "American" in English, many of these Spanish speakers believe English speakers should modify the meaning of "American" to mirror their "Americano"

Spanish speakers, or, rather, the Crown of Castille created the word "America" and "americanos" to refer to the new continent and their people. English speakers adopted the same word, but with a different meaning.

Not saying that it's wrong for US people to refer to their country by anh word that they chose. They are free to do so. But it is useful, I think, to understand that people for other countries of America, who call themselves "americanos" because that's what they are, can be surprised to be told they are not "Americans", even though they are "americanos". I guess it's confusing for them, at the very least.

Just imagine that Colombians started to call their country "America" and when you went there they would insist that you are not American ("americano"). I guess you would not be amused. I don't know.

I'm not "americano", but European, so it doesn't really affect me. Just trying to give some context to better understand others. Peace! :-)

[coutego]

That's what I wrote, that in English speaking countries you refer to the whole continent as "the Americas".

The name "America", though, was given to the whole "New World", which is what we now call "America", the continent. British started using the name just for what is now the US, so in English speaking countries, the usage is different nowdays. In other countries "America" continues to be used for the whole continent (it is still considered one conti nent, not two).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent