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?