• Deceptichum@quokk.au
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    2 days ago

    South America is South America, not America.

    So yes, technically the first American pope. Not the first Pope from the Americas.

      • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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        2 days ago

        Yes? He’s both from the country of America and from the continent of North America.

        This is very basic English, it shouldn’t be blowing your mind.

        • 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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            7 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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              1 day 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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                7 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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                1 day 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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                    8 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.

                  • 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.

    • Voyajer@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      “American” is the official demonym of the United States but people here will fight you on that for whatever reason.