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Demonyms for the United States

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This article is about terms applied to people. For terms used for the United States as a nation-state, see List of terms for the United States of America.


There are a number of alternative adjectives to American as a demonym for a person of the United States that can not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas.

The most widely used and recognised term in English for a person of the United States is "American." Other terms were used historically, and some modern attempts have been made to develop different terms for political or humorous reasons.

The use of American as a national demonym for United States citizens has been challenged primarily by Latin Americans (and Canadians in the past) since 1816 or earlier [1].

Some, mostly outside of the United States, perceive use of the word America for the United States of America as culturally aggressive[citation needed] as others use the word to refer to the entirety of the New World, though residents of what would become and what is the United States of America have been using the adjectives America and American to describe themselves since colonial times.

Pejoratives

The best-known alternative words for people of the United States in English are understood to be pejorative and may also be ambiguous:

  • Amerikan
  • Gringo (Should be noted, however, that this adjective is not always pejorative)
  • Uhmerikun, Merkin (OED Draft Entry, 2002) or Murkun (mocking regional pronunciation)
  • Seppo[1]
  • Yankee
  • Yanqui

Alternative terms in English

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

One colonial adjective was Virginian, since Virginia was the mother of colonies and states. Virginia as a toponym, originally extended all along the Eastern Seaboard. Other regions like New England and the Mid-Atlantic emerged as splinter collectives from joint stock administration in the Virginia Company. New England was originally called "northern Virginia", especially in transport manifests for colonists. Economic divergence stimulated separated identities, especially since the London (based at Fort James) and Plymouth (based at Fort Saint George) companies were divided by the Dutch and Swedish Middle Colonies.

Alternative demonyms proposed for U.S. citizens are:

from America:
from Columbia:
  • Columbian
  • Columbard
from United States [of America]:
  • Unitedstatesean
  • Stater
  • Statesider
  • Uesican (pronounced [juˈɛsɪkən]) or Uessian (pronounced [juˈɛsiən])
  • Unisan or Unisian
  • Unitizen, Statizen
  • Unionist
  • United States American, United Stater, United Stateser, United Statesian, United Statesman, or United Statian
  • USAian, U.S. American, Usan, USAn, Usanian, Usian (pronounced [ˈjuʒən]), U-S-ian, or Usonian (pronounced [juˈsoʊniən])
others:

Although there might be good arguments in favor of some of these terms, "American" remains by far the most common word for a citizen of the USA. "Usonian" is used for an architectural style, and "Washingtonian" remains as the adjective for the state of Washington and the city of Washington, D.C.

"Columbian", derived from the original popular name for the United States, Columbia, would likely cause unacceptable confusion with "Colombian", which today relates to the modern Republic of Colombia. Colombia, like America, historically referred to the New World as a whole.

Other languages

In Spanish, the term 'American' is more ambiguous. In the Ibero-American countries, the use of 'American' to refer only to U.S. citizens could be considered factually incorrect and culturally aggressive.[citation needed]

  • [Norteamericano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Spanish for "North American") is common in Latin America, but suffers from the same kind of ambiguity as "American", since Canadians and Mexicans, amongst others, are also North Americans. For that reason, [estadounidense] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is also frequently used and tends to be preferred in formal language, as in [dólar estadounidense] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("U.S. dollar").
  • In Portuguese, [norte-americano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is the most commonly used term[citation needed]. [Estadunidense] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is gaining some popularity, specifically in Brazil, where its usage traditionally rises during times of tension with the USA.
  • The Esperanto term for the United States of America is [Usono] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). This is generally thought to come from "Usonia". In Esperanto, one forms the word for a citizen of a given country using the suffix "-an" which means "member of". Therefore a citizen of the United States is [usonano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). (Such derived words are not capitalized.) Esperanto terms for the American geographic regions and their people are Ameriko/amerikano, Norda Ameriko/nordamerikano, Meza Ameriko/mezamerikano, and Suda Ameriko/sudamerikano.
  • In French, [États-Unien(ne)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [Étatsunien(ne)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or [Étasunien(ne)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) are occasionally used, but considered pedantic in speech.
  • In Italian the term [Statunitense] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (from [Stati Uniti] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), United States) is widely used.
  • In German, [US-Amerikaner] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) may be used to avoid ambiguity or to be politically correct, but it may come across as pedantic if used conversationally. [Amerikaner] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is in general usage in Germany, and is widely accepted to refer to the United States. [Ami] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is a colloquialism which unambiguously refers to U.S. citizens. The German usage of [Ami] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is akin to the Mexican usage of [Gringo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), in that it can be neutral, patronizing, or perhaps even affectionate.
  • Pindos (or Pindosian) was born during UN operation in Kosovo. The initiators of this were Russian troops at Kosovo airport in Pristina. In some Southern Russian dialects pindos is a derogatory term for Greeks. Some reports indicate that its use has spread beyond Russian troops and that its meaning has likewise spread, to refer not only to soldiers.

See also

References

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Draft Entry, June 2002. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

  1. ^ "Dictionary of Australian Slang". Australian Travel Search.
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