American (word) - Other Languages

Other Languages

The French, Portuguese, German, and Italian languages use cognates of the word "American", in denoting "U.S. citizen". In Spanish, americano denotes geographic and cultural origin in the New World, as well as infrequently a U.S. citizen; the adjective and noun, denoting estadounidense (United States person), derives from Estados Unidos de América (United States of America). The Spanish term norteamericano (North American), is frequently used to refer things and persons from the United States, but this term can also denote people and things from Canada, and the rest of North America.

The Spanish words estadounidense (United States person), yanqui (Yankee), and gringo are Spanish terms denoting U.S. things and persons. In personal denotation, "gringo" means estadounidense, in particular, and anglophones in general, and, linguistically, any speech not Spanish, i.e. "She is speaking gringo, not Spanish". Cognate usages may cause cultural friction between U.S. nationals and Latin Americans who object to American English's exclusionary denotations of 'American'.

Portuguese has americano, denoting both a person or thing from the Americas and a U.S. national. For referring specifically to a U.S. national and things, the words used are estadunidense (also spelled estado-unidense) (United States person), from Estados Unidos da América, and ianque (Yankee), but the term most often used is norte-americano, even though it could, as with its Spanish equivalent, in theory apply to Canadians, Mexicans, etc., as well. In French, étasunien, from États-Unis d'Amérique, distinguishes U.S. things and persons from the adjective américain, which denotes persons and things from the United States but may also refer to 'the Americas'; likewise, the German usages U.S.-amerikanisch and U.S.-Amerikaner observe said cultural distinction, solely denoting U.S. things and people. It is important to note that these are "politically correct" terms and that in normal parlance, the adjective "American" and its direct cognates are almost always used unless the context does not render the nationality of the person clear. For example, the word "Amerika" in German has a one-to-one equivalence to its meaning in modern English: it may denote North America, South America, or both, and in some instances refers to the United States only.

Chinese has Chinese: 美國; pinyin: Měiguó in which the first element sounds like the accented second syllable in "America" (and the second element means "nation").