• DrownedRats@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Hes the second American pope. America refers to both north and south america. The United States of America only referes to a part of America.

    He may be the first north american pope and the first pope from the united states of america, but hes not the first american pope.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      13 hours ago

      America(s) refers to that, yes. American is basically always used to refer to people from the USA. I can tell by the careful wording that you are aware of this and just trying to be pedantic and annoying, which I don’t understand, but I guess you get a kick out of it.

      There are lots of words that describe things that dint match their original meaning anymore. I used the example ketchup a minute ago. It probably came from a word meaning a fermented fish sauce, yet it isn’t that anymore. Should we change the name, or is the fact we all understand it to mean a sweet tomato based sauce (unless stated otherwise) a good enough reason to keep going as we are?

    • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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      2 days ago

      No.

      We follow a different continental model than you do that separates them into two different continents of North America and South America.

      • DrownedRats@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Which continental model you use here is entirely irrelevant anyway because in neither model is north america referred to as just “america”. The only time that just “America” is used is to refer to the union of north and south america.

        There is no country of America. There is the united states of america which would make the pope a statesman. So you can have the first north american pope, the first statesman pope, or just settle for second american pope.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          13 hours ago

          Stop being annoying. You’re changing words around to fit your message. We’re referring to American, not America. That might be a confusing distinction to make for you, but sometimes the meaning of words don’t exactly follow their etymology.

        • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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          2 days ago

          What??? Of course we dont call North America simply America, why would you even think that was an argument I was making? That goes against everything I’ve said.

          And there is a country of America, it’s the United States of America. No one calls Germans from the Federal Republic of Germany - Federalisians, same goes for anywhere else including America.

          • TheMetaleek@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            Actually, literally the entire world excepted the US does call them “United States of America”, if not only “United States”, with traductions of those. The French use “États-Unis”, often not specifying America, as do the Spanish speaking world with “Estados unidos”. And, yeah, we often just say “Germany”, 'cause Germany doesn’t try to appropriately the name for the entirety of the continent they sit on, like that one weirdo country does.

            • ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca
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              14 hours ago

              Absolutely false. In Canada essentially everyone calls them Americans. The country is referred to 99% of the time as one of these three: America, The States, The US.

              • TheMetaleek@sh.itjust.works
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                11 hours ago

                Oh yeah, the US and the one country next to them, whom they exported all their norms and culture to should definitely be a standard for the entire world, aye?

            • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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              1 day ago

              Cool, do you see me going up to them and demanding they speak it like the English do? Stop being a shitcunt and trying to force your language and cultural norms on other peoples.

              Oh and Germany does take on the name of a geographical region spanning more than the present day nation state called Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germania

              Your entire argument for why everyone should just do what you want is simply “We do it this way” and “The US is stupid”? Like seriously grow the fuck up mate.