On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 13:01:39 +0100, kat wrote:

> Nancy Young said:
>> Mike........... wrote:
>>> Following up to Andy
>>>
>>>> We're Americans. USAians is a derogatory thing to say, imho!
>>>
>>> Its a confused term, I think many europeans see "american" as
>>> disrespectful of south americans, but i never heard a south american
>>> say that and as USian sounds daft I dont see a practical change
>>> coming.
>>
>> Well, South Americans are just that, just as we are North Americans.
>> America is not a continent.
>>
>> But our country is called America.
>>
>
> I thought it was called the United States of America. Just as here we live
> in assorted parts of a country called either Great Britain or the United
> Kingdom, depending which bits you are including at the time.
>
> Despite many years online I have only recently seen this USAian thing; it
> looks clumsy to me.

not something i would take umbrage at; i agree that it's infelicitous.

your pal,
blake