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What is the most descriptive word for a person from the United States? ‘American’, although widely used and accepted, is not really descriptive enough. Consider that anyone native or naturalized to the American continent – north, central, south – is an American. A Canadian is just as American as a Chilean, a Brazilian just as American as a Panamanian, and a Paraguayan just as American as a United States-?.
And while I’m on the subject, what is the correct word for being overly-centered on one’s own country? The word’s definition, if there is such a word, would be along the lines of jingoism, sans chauvinism and the proclivity toward the bellicose; or egotism, replacing the concept of ego with one’s country. I thought ‘patriocentric’ might be the right word, but no dice: I just made it up. (Yes, I really should have known better than to take the ‘o’ from ‘otic’ and move it to the end of ‘patri’, but I did it anyway, and I’m really not very proud of it.) I found ‘patricentric’, but it doesn’t have the definition for which I am looking. ‘Nationalistic’ – nope; ‘superpatriotic’ – uh-uh; ‘ultranationalistic’ – guess again: none of the words I looked up were quite right.
Any thoughts?
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Any thoughts?
Well yes, Dgeigh, but first let's seperate your question in the first paragraph from your question in the second paragraph because they do not commingle.
(1) Yes, of course everyone who is a citizen of the New World can be called an American. However, most people in countries overseas reserve the term for the good people of the United States because we are the flag ship of Western Culture in this World and calling us "Americans" saves them time.
(2) Pride.
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we are the flag ship of Western Culture in this WorldThat is a very U.S.-centric point of view, themilum. Web not so U.S-centric anymoreIndustry Standard magazine, March 15, 1999 Throughout the 1990s, the bulk of the Net's growth has taken place in the U.S. The unabashedly American character of Web content is impossible to overlook.
However, the Internet's demographics are slowly shifting away from U.S.-centrism. Some of the first signs of a more cosmopolitan Net population are visible on the major U.S.-based community sites. http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9903/15/webworld.idg/Who are the "Americans" in "America" anyway? The Province of Ontario across from Michigan has more in common with Michigan than Michigan has in common with Alabama, for instance. Likewise, Washington State has more in common with British Columbia than with Alabama. And much has been made of the "red state/blue state" divide *. So it might be fair to ask, themilum, which America "is the flag ship of Western Culture"? Dgeigh came very close with "patri-centric". How about nation-centric? * Blue states buzz over secessionTHE WASHINGTON TIMES, November 2004 Secession, which didn't work very well when it was tried once before, is suddenly red hot in the blue states. In certain precincts, anyway.
One popular map circulating on the Internet shows the 19 blue states won by Sen. John Kerry — Washington, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland and the Northeastern states — conjoined with Canada to form the "United States of Canada."http://snipurl.com/cubw
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I don’t understand your explanation Milum. Even if we do not dispute the U.S. “being the flagship of Western Culture”, how would that have translated into USians being called “Americans” by Europeans. How is this a time-saver? There is no link between the two terms.
I’m thinking US folks started calling themselves Americans because it is easier to say than United Statesians, or USians. Humans tend to take the easy route if possible, even in language. Also, since “America” is an integral part of the country’s name, I think USians appropriated the name of the continent to describe themselves.
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[through gritted teeth] Here you go, Dgeigh: patriolatry. See: http://www.onelook.com/?loc=rescb&w=patriolatryEdit: gritted teeth not due to you, bel.
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 Oh, is that what OneLook is, a dictionary. I'll have to find the thread where I asked what it was and edit.
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Patriolatry is the right word, Jackie, if the word Dgeigh is looking for is equivalent to "jingoism', but he excluded "chauvinism" and "bellicosity" - sans chauvinism and the proclivity toward the bellicose, he said - which is associated with "jingoism", at least in this definition:
Dictionary.com jin·go·ism n.
Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism
An American citizen can be U.S.-centric without having "excessive devotion" to their country, as per this definition:
patriolatry n.
excessive devotion to native country
Being U.S.-centric means that you look at the rest of the world through the eyes of someone whose life is centred in the United States. This is a matter of perspective, not patriotism.
So I guess we need Dgeigh to tell us what he means.
Are we talking about perspective here, or patriotism?
re "Edit: gritted teeth not due to you, bel"
Hey, I didn't write the Washington Times story, Jackie. In fact, the so-called 'blue state secession' thing was started in the U.S. not in Canada. Canadians had nothing to do with it. We weren't even consulted.
I was simply making the point, Jackie, that "American culture" is as varied as "Western culture". I'm not knocking American culture. I love American culture in all of its different expressions in all the different regions of the U.S. I have visited. But, in each of those different regions, American culture is different. [Which makes traveling in the U.S. all the more interesting.]
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Well yes, Dgeigh, but first let's separate your question in the first paragraph from your question in the second paragraph because they do not commingle.
As you have made plain, themilum, they don’t commingle in your mind, but they do, nevertheless (based on conversations I’ve had with other people – both citizens of the United States and citizens of other American countries), commingle in the minds of others.
However, most people in countries overseas reserve the term for the good people of the United States because we are the flag ship of Western Culture in this World and calling us "Americans" saves them time.
I seriously doubt that the apparent lack of a widely-used word, exclusively describing citizens of the United States, can be traced to people in overseas countries trying to save a millisecond or two out of their busy day. Such an argument suggests that the citizens of the United States are so easily influenced by the time-needy citizens of overseas countries that we’ve allow them to lull us into not coining a word to exclusively describe ourselves, just because they may use the word ‘American’. It also suggests that overseas citizens, of their own invention, decided to coin the word ‘American’ for their own time-saving convenience. I suggest that an English-speaking American coined the word, and that the word became popular and widely-used by the citizens of the United States for the reasons belMarduk mentioned above. [Well stated, bel] Perhaps the world’s overseas citizenry do use ‘American’ to exclusively describe us, but I do not think it was their invention.
Pride.
Fervor for the United States aside, ‘pride’ is entirely too broad a word to describe the concept.
[through gritted teeth] Here you go, Dgeigh: patriolatry.
Thank you for the link, Jackie. I hope the gritted teeth are not due to me.
The definition of ‘patriolatry’ certainly describes the “jingoism, sans chauvinism and the proclivity toward the bellicose”, I suggested, but it leans too much toward the patriotic for what I had in mind. Seeing patriolatry’s definition makes me realize that the concepts of ‘devotion’ and ‘patriotism’ aren’t quite what I had in mind either. Plutarch’s citation of ‘U.S.-centric’, with accompanying definition, is closer to the mark than anything else. But it too is not quite right, either – very close, but slightly off, particularly: looking “at the rest of the world through the eyes of someone whose life is centered in the United States”. The concept of which I am thinking is more along the lines of being blind to anything outside of one’s own country – rather than nation-colored glasses, so to speak, nation-absorbed blinders.
My thanks to everyone for their input on this subject.
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Plutarch said: "The Province of Ontario across from Michigan has more in common with Michigan than Michigan has in common with Alabama, for instance. Likewise, Washington State has more in common with British Columbia than with Alabama." ________________________________________________________ Bullmoose!  Commonality is determined by shared beliefs and mutual history and customs not proximity. As well, your blue state exodus is frivolous. 70% of the counties in your blue states voted for Bush, only the over-crowded dysfunctional cites voted for Kerry. This is a Republic, don't you know. And BelMarduk, the Gross National Product of the US is bigger than the combined total of all other countries in North and South America. Wow! A few years back over 90% of the visitors to oversea lands were Americans of US descent. And when the foreign people wrote signs that said [YANKEE GO HOME] they were not talking about Canadians or Cubans, they were talking about Americans...USuns, whom they loved to hate. Yet the dream of half a world in the last Century was to come to America. And that dream was to them, to come to the United States. And they came and they are still coming.
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70% of the counties in your blue states voted for BushHey, they weren't my blue states, themilum. I didn't get a vote. Does "parochial" work for you, Dgeigh? BTW themilum, the Ambassador Bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario is the busiest truck border crossing in the world. Many of my Michigan friends prefer the CBC evening news to their own evening news. They party and dine and hunt and fish and own cottages all over Ontario. They share the Great Lakes with Ontario and many of them supply goods or services to the same automakers and their suppliers on both sides of the border. About the only thing we don't have in common with our Michigan friends is the same passport, themilum. But we don't need a passport to cross the border. Heck, many of my Michigan friends get across even when they forget to bring their Birth Certificate. Can't resist appending this, themilum: In Ontario, anyone from the U.S. is just one of "us". 
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