Comment on Why is there no true Progressive party in America right now?
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 months agoThe country has a name that isn’t America in all languages, it’s just a bad habit that came from the USA and spread all over… and as an American that doesn’t live in the USA, I’m just doing my part to remind people that America isn’t the USA.
I would love to see people’s reaction if France started calling itself Europe or China called itself Asia…
And literally literally means figuratively.
A teaching my advanced linguistic classes drilled into me is “l’uso fa legge”.
Or, translated, usage makes the rules.
No language is logical, and consensus is how language is derived.
Pedantry is never ingratiating.
Well, for them there is “North America” and “South America”, for us the continent is just America. So I can see how it isn’t confusing depending on your culture.
kirklennon@kbin.social 5 months ago
I consider your comment highly offensive. You can’t tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language just because the same word means something else in another language. In English “America” refers unambiguously to the United States because there is no continent called “America.”
This comparison would work only if “Europe” meant one thing in French, and if the word “China” meant one thing in Chinese, and they both meant different in other languages.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Funny because all dictionaries mention that America is also a word that refers to the continent(s) and I find it highly offensive that you guys find it acceptable to appropriate the term to refer to one country that actually has another name (when the “America” in that name actually refers to the continent too).
kirklennon@kbin.social 5 months ago
In English, there is North America and there is South America. Collectively, you can call them the Americas. Just "America" on its own refers to the country. It doesn't matter what A-M-E-R-I-C-A mean in a different language. Spanish has what is fundamentally a different word, with the same spelling, to refer to something else. In linguistic terms it's a false friend. The etymological origins are, indeed, the same, but it took on separate meanings in different languages. Nobody is confused about this, however. You're just being an asshole.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
ENGLISH dictionaries mention that America is also a word that refers to the continent(s), it’s as valid IN ENGLISH to use it to refer to the country as it is to refer to the continent(s), only one of the two usages discriminates against people of other countries.
It’s not about confusion, it’s about the US acting like the center of the fucking universe.