Talk:America (disambiguation)/Archive 2

message: *The central problem with having America redirect anywhere but here is the presence of two, opposed, unwavering camps.  For many people in the United States, the meaning of "America" is clear and the idea that the word might have another definition would be suprising, shocking, and even angering.  Moreover, it is common in the United States to think of North America and South America as two separate entities not requiring a label together.  The other camp has the opposite position, with the definition of "America" equally clear and sensible; and its other use equally angering and even insulting (though not surprising).  Keeping this page here preserves the neutral point of view required by Wikipedia policy. -Acjelen 17:05, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well put. Corticopia 17:17, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

text: This is almost exactly right - the only inaccuracy is the assigning to Americans reactions that are also common among Canadians, for instance.  WilyD 17:21, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Really? I am Canadian and I wouldn't think so. While "America" is derived from American usage, I don't think it's used as often as "the States", due to the potential ambiguity and the fact that we are both part of North America. But you may be right. –Pomte 03:04, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, my day-to-day usage is "Americans come from the (United) States" - but I'd vehemently deny that I'm an American, and I'd walk away from (or Jersey!) anyone who pushed the point too much.  WilyD 03:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

text: *The word America is used to refer to the Americas - just about every source about it will mention this.  Latin Americans feel particularly strongly about this - and although I find it bizarre, given the implications, it does seem to be the case.  I asked a Chilean co-worker about continents and he identified America as one of the five continents.  Of course, myself and my (real) American officemate were surprised - but the evidence that this usage is widespread is  abundant. WilyD 17:55, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: And can we assume, WilyD, that you were having this conversation with your Chilean co-worker in English? -Acjelen 17:59, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah - Je parle seulement Anglais.  WilyD 18:04, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

text: * In Korea and I believe Japan, too, the word is actually just a transliterated version of America for the United States.  Speakers from Asia generally wind up using this word for it when they learn English, just like virtually all Americans.  I know there is a borderline militant (no one here I'm sure, no ruffled feathers please) group of people who like to say all you Americans and Indians and Asians and British are wrong, but sorry, outside of Latin America it's kind of rare, and I don't see those people as forming anywhere close to a significant portion of English speakers.  In most places in the world if they ask where you took your summer holiday and you respond "America," you won't get a puzzled look asking you to specify.  Since the only people who really care about this issue are those who want to preach their position that "you all are saying it wrong," my guess is the move will fail, and they can keep their dab page as a tacit reminder to all the hundreds of millions of English speaking schoolkids and adults alike who make the grave error of typing America to mean the US that there is a small but vocal portion of the world who use it for another purpose. --Cheers, Komdori 18:56, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: *There's a lot more to it than this.  I've been very vocal in my condemnation of using America to mean the Americas and American to mean Pan-American - but I also see why this is the correct solution for this issue.  It's a straightforward issue that America is sometimes used to mean the Americas and we really can't quantify how much this is - but every dictionary and encyclopaedia thinks it's enough that it warrents prominant mention.  We really have no idea what percentage of users who enter America into the search box mean the States, and how many mean the Americas.  WilyD 19:05, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: * I agree it would be awfully nice to know who clicked where, it might help discussions like this.  That being said, even if we did move the page, we can still have such a prominent mention at the top of the page that "America redirected there, and to see other usages of the word click here." Paper encyclopedias don't really have that ability.  Another thing to keep in mind--paper books can't do this kind of redirect.  They have to choose a place to actually print the article, which clearly should be all the way over in volume U for US.  They therefore have a choice--at America just put "see US" or give a bigger dab like we have.  In the interest of common sense they have to put everything there "just in case." We don't--we can resolve to US and give a notice that there are some other meanings, too.  I don't want to get in a huge google debate with anyone, but simple searches really do show that in most cases America is used as US.  --Cheers, Komdori 19:12, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussion

message: This Poll is not aimed to replace the debate above, but is being used to clarify a question.See Wikipedia's policy on polling for more information.  
The question for this Poll is: What does the term America most commonly refer too? Please place your answer in the appropriate section by simply inserting the pound sign followed by four tildes. Black Harry 18:51, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: So you are honestly suggesting that there is a significant number of people who go around in the English speaking world using America to refer exclusively to South America?  
#See List of countries by English-speaking population - while America = the States may be the common usage in American, Canadian and a few other dialects, we know that simply polling the lot of us is unlikely to give insight into the plurality of usage, nevermind the majority of usage.  WilyD 17:10, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Right, and considering the huge number of results where the word America means the US, do you have any evidence that it is often used as a word alone to refer to something else?  I mean, even searching for "God Bless America" gives a million and a half results; "America the Beautiful" another million+, "America Online" the same.  Even if it were just the US (it's not, it's also Canada, Europe, Asia, etc.), the number of times they use the word America to describe themselves far outweighs the times America is used (alone) to refer to anything else. --Cheers, Komdori 17:45, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Significant evidence to this effect has already been presented.  WilyD 18:45, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed, Wily. It is obvious the word "America" is to some extent ambiguous, the real question should be if it ambiguous enough to require a disambiguation page. Even though "United States" is the most common use, the term is still quite ambiguous, especially in terms of an encyclopedia search. A similar case is presented by Native Americans. The term is ambiguous; does it mean Indians, or just Indians in the US? Or does it refer to all indigenous peoples in the US, which includes Native Hawaiians and certain Alaska groups, who are not closely related to Indians? Or does it refer to all indigenous peoples in any state in the Americas, such as native Easter Islanders, who are Chilean? In this case there is a primary use of the term (Native Americans in the United States) but the term is still ambiguous enough to require a disambig page.--Cúchullain t/c 21:14, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  I'm sorry WilyD, I've read through everything and didn't see it, I must be blind.  Can you give a link to the section or point where there is evidence that the word "America" alone is used (without being in a context of "Latin America," "Central America," etc.) to mean the Americas such that such usage rivals the usage of the word America alone (without being in the phrase "United States of America") to imply the US?  The google searches seem to suggest there are hundreds of millions of cases of the latter, and comparitively I can't find more than a handful of the former. --Cheers, Komdori 21:58, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Google searches are probably a less accurate way of figuring this out than a coinflip would be.  We already know India has the most english speakers and very poor internet access, for instance.  The move America to United States crowd has exactly no evidence, whereas the "leave as a disambig" crowd has the precedent that every other encyclopaedia and every dictionary treats them equally (with a mix of first listing preference). WilyD 01:27, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: WilyD, the only hard evidence (for either side) on this whole page was your link to dictionary definitions in which every one listed had U.S.A. as the first listing. (Oh, one other, Komdori's citation from a paper encyclopedia (s)he had close at hand.)  I would head to the library tomorrow and do a quick survey of encyclopedias if I thought it had any chance of swaying either side.  Gruber76 01:53, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That's willful blindness if there was any, since other dictionaries presented list senses for 'America' differentially, e.g., Merriam-Webster (listed 3rd), Oxford ... and Britannica, in its entry for America, redirects readers not to 'United States' but to 'Americas'.  Corticopia 02:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not willful blindness.  Just sloppiness of where my cursor was when I started searching the page for "dictionary."  If you're going to insult me, don't give me more credit than I deserve. Gruber76 02:59, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Credit where it is due? Corticopia 03:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

text: FWIW, the article on America at MSN Encarta is about the "second largest isolated landmass of the earth, comprising the two continents of the western hemisphere." older ≠ wiser 03:02, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  FWIW more, when you put in America in their search, it lists the United States article on the top and lists the article about the landmass further down, implying they assume you "really meant" US. As for paper encyclopedias, of course they have a dab page there, they don't have the ability to have both a redirect and a dab page like we do.  --Cheers, Komdori 14:00, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

text: The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal.  Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.</div>
It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it be moved. --Stemonitis 18:12, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Straw Poll 1

message: #Black Harry 18:59, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: United States of America

message: #While there might be some who assert that the using term America to refer to something other than the U.S. is more common -- that is actually quite besides the point. The real question is whether the term is ambiguous. And that is, IMO, rather indisputable. It is indisputable that in native English usage, there are a variety of common referents for the term -- and two in particular that are at least very roughly in the same league of commonality. older ≠ wiser 21:33, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: So you are honestly suggesting that there is a significant number of people who go around in the English speaking world using America to refer exclusively to South America?  
#See List of countries by English-speaking population - while America = the States may be the common usage in American, Canadian and a few other dialects, we know that simply polling the lot of us is unlikely to give insight into the plurality of usage, nevermind the majority of usage.  WilyD 17:10, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Right, and considering the huge number of results where the word America means the US, do you have any evidence that it is often used as a word alone to refer to something else?  I mean, even searching for "God Bless America" gives a million and a half results; "America the Beautiful" another million+, "America Online" the same.  Even if it were just the US (it's not, it's also Canada, Europe, Asia, etc.), the number of times they use the word America to describe themselves far outweighs the times America is used (alone) to refer to anything else. --Cheers, Komdori 17:45, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Significant evidence to this effect has already been presented.  WilyD 18:45, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed, Wily. It is obvious the word "America" is to some extent ambiguous, the real question should be if it ambiguous enough to require a disambiguation page. Even though "United States" is the most common use, the term is still quite ambiguous, especially in terms of an encyclopedia search. A similar case is presented by Native Americans. The term is ambiguous; does it mean Indians, or just Indians in the US? Or does it refer to all indigenous peoples in the US, which includes Native Hawaiians and certain Alaska groups, who are not closely related to Indians? Or does it refer to all indigenous peoples in any state in the Americas, such as native Easter Islanders, who are Chilean? In this case there is a primary use of the term (Native Americans in the United States) but the term is still ambiguous enough to require a disambig page.--Cúchullain t/c 21:14, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  I'm sorry WilyD, I've read through everything and didn't see it, I must be blind.  Can you give a link to the section or point where there is evidence that the word "America" alone is used (without being in a context of "Latin America," "Central America," etc.) to mean the Americas such that such usage rivals the usage of the word America alone (without being in the phrase "United States of America") to imply the US?  The google searches seem to suggest there are hundreds of millions of cases of the latter, and comparitively I can't find more than a handful of the former. --Cheers, Komdori 21:58, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Google searches are probably a less accurate way of figuring this out than a coinflip would be.  We already know India has the most english speakers and very poor internet access, for instance.  The move America to United States crowd has exactly no evidence, whereas the "leave as a disambig" crowd has the precedent that every other encyclopaedia and every dictionary treats them equally (with a mix of first listing preference). WilyD 01:27, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: WilyD, the only hard evidence (for either side) on this whole page was your link to dictionary definitions in which every one listed had U.S.A. as the first listing. (Oh, one other, Komdori's citation from a paper encyclopedia (s)he had close at hand.)  I would head to the library tomorrow and do a quick survey of encyclopedias if I thought it had any chance of swaying either side.  Gruber76 01:53, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That's willful blindness if there was any, since other dictionaries presented list senses for 'America' differentially, e.g., Merriam-Webster (listed 3rd), Oxford ... and Britannica, in its entry for America, redirects readers not to 'United States' but to 'Americas'.  Corticopia 02:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not willful blindness.  Just sloppiness of where my cursor was when I started searching the page for "dictionary."  If you're going to insult me, don't give me more credit than I deserve. Gruber76 02:59, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Credit where it is due? Corticopia 03:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

text: FWIW, the article on America at MSN Encarta is about the "second largest isolated landmass of the earth, comprising the two continents of the western hemisphere." older ≠ wiser 03:02, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  FWIW more, when you put in America in their search, it lists the United States article on the top and lists the article about the landmass further down, implying they assume you "really meant" US. As for paper encyclopedias, of course they have a dab page there, they don't have the ability to have both a redirect and a dab page like we do.  --Cheers, Komdori 14:00, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

text: The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal.  Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.</div>
It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it be moved. --Stemonitis 18:12, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: This poll is pointless diversion from the real question

message: Joie de Vivre asked in that editor's last edit summary if listing the division of "the Americas" into North America and South America was necessary on this disambiguation page.  I think that it is: as some users may not be familiar with the term Americas or with the use of America to describe both North America and South America. -Acjelen 14:30, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think it's misleading without the inclusion of the alternate subdivision into North America, Central America, and South America (and sometimes the Carribean), so it probably should be left out.  Perhaps the recently added Western hemisphere gives adequate context.  — Arthur Rubin |  (talk) 14:37, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Which would just open the floodgates to transporting a whole article into a disambiguation page.  "Western Hemisphere" seems like a good qualifier - although I'd listen to alternatives. WilyD 14:45, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Hello.  I agree with Acjelen.  I also believe we should keep it as simple as possible, i.e., Western hemisphere, with just North and South America; otherwise, we open the floodgates to adding any number of other Americas to this entry.  Quizimodo 16:19, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: As I pointed out, I believe that adding North and South America "opens the floodgates".  Western hemisphere seems adequate. — Arthur Rubin |  (talk) 17:19, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

text: North and South America are continents - and those are what is referred to together as the Americas. I believe they should--Keerllston 02:34, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

text: I agree with Quizimodo and Acjelen that North and South America should be left in, as not everyone outside of North- and Southamerica knows what The Americas means. Central America could be added, but I'm not 100% sure, as it is not a continent on its own. --Mdebets (talk) 12:54, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Listing the two American continents 

message: You must include the proper IPA:pronounciation of "America" in your Articles including that/and "Ah"-merica pertains to it's Continent and/that "A"-merica pertains to the "U.S.A."  Intuitionz 01:17, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, The Americas are "in" the Western hemisphere and not "of". Intuitionz (talk) 03:48, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Pronounciation" 

message: OK, I'll admit this seems like a stupid topic to require a discussion of, but there has been persistent edit-warring by certain editors over it, so we need to try to reach a consensus and stick with it.  The issue is the wording of the second bullet-point on this page: editors have gone back and forth between versions 1, 2, and 3 below; versions 4 and 5 are additional alternatives.  Please state one preference and give reasons in the appropriate section below, and add any further comments in the Discussion section. --Russ (talk) 10:00, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I find this a difficult point of view to understand. After all, saying that "Louisiana is in the United States" does not imply that Louisiana is in all parts of the United States, saying that "France is a country of Europe" doesn't mean that it's necessarily in Eastern Europe, and saying that I'm in my house doesn't imply that I'm in all rooms of my house at once. Thus, the United States can be said to be "in [or of] the Americas" just as Argentina can be said to be "in [or of] the Americas." --Tkynerd (talk) 02:35, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Description of United States 

message: Version 1: The United States of America, a country in North America
* Ambivalent: more specific, but neglects that the state of Hawaii is not in North America, but in the Pacific Ocean in Oceania (viz. Polynesia).  Also fails to consider that the U.S. may be reckoned in Anglo-America, Northern America, or whatever other region of the Americas. 69.158.144.108 (talk) 14:00, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Prefer Version 1

message: Version 2: The United States of America, a country in the Americas
* Preferred, as it circles back to first entry (the Americas) without introducing another notion regarding (a region of) America (i.e. North America).  More inclusive, as it allows for inclusion of U.S. in Anglo-America etc.  Arguably, also neglects that Hawaii is not in North America but in the Pacific Ocean in Oceania (viz. Polynesia). 69.158.144.108 (talk) 14:00, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Prefer Version 2

message: Version 3: The United States of America
* Anyone with enough education to be able to read Wikipedia in English is certain to know what the United States of America is; the purpose of a disambiguation page is to direct the reader to the relevant article, and this version is all that is necessary to achieve that purpose.  --Russ (talk) 10:00, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Prefer Version 3

message: Version 4: America (country) or the United States of America
*There are adequate redirects that match the disambiguation phrase that should be used, with no description needed. America (US), America (USA), and America (United States) are also available. -- JHunterJ (talk) 11:36, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Prefer Version 4

message: Version 5: The United States of America, a country of the Americas
* More preferred, as it circles back to first entry without introducing another notion.  Doesn't necessarily deal with notion of Hawaii (e.g., 'of' as opposed to 'in'). 69.158.144.108 (talk) 14:00, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Prefer Version 5

message: * If Version 4 is preferred, I would suggest changing the first bullet-point to "America (continent)" for consistency.  --Russ (talk) 13:02, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I find this a difficult point of view to understand. After all, saying that "Louisiana is in the United States" does not imply that Louisiana is in all parts of the United States, saying that "France is a country of Europe" doesn't mean that it's necessarily in Eastern Europe, and saying that I'm in my house doesn't imply that I'm in all rooms of my house at once. Thus, the United States can be said to be "in [or of] the Americas" just as Argentina can be said to be "in [or of] the Americas." --Tkynerd (talk) 02:35, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussion

message: I am new to Wikipedia, but as a linguist, I think I can shed some light on the subject. Indeed, America was the name originally applied to all the lands of the New World because they were considered a single continent. However, in the 21st century most of the world (minus many latin cultures such as the Spanish and the Portuguese) consider North America and South America separate continents. From a practical stand point, it would be quite strange to refer to two continents by a single name, principally "America," and their inhabitants by a single denonym, "Americans." Also, considering ambiguity, the United States of America is not the only country to have been called the United States. In fact, in Spanish the official name of Mexico is Estados Unidos Mexicanos yet they refer to their northern neighbor as Estados Unidos. Is their not inconsistency? I must also point out that the word "America" does not exist in every language, either refering to the USA (not the Union of South Africa:-]) or the New World. In Chinese the US is Meiguo, meaning "Beautiful country." Are there not other countries that are beautiful? And in Vietnamese, Hoa Ky, meaning "Flower Flag." Does the Stars and Stripes look like a flower? My point is that regardless of antiquity or definitions in other languages, America in its unqualified self is indubitably the USA in the English language around the world. Just consult Fowlers.Usonano85 (talk) 00:36, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I might add that The United States of America is the only country that carries America in its official name. Or is there another one? Well the Confederate States of America, but that's history--Ratzer (talk) 10:12, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Linguistic Reasoning 

message: The first President of the United States gave that name to the country. This is why, inevitably, America is referred by US citizens as the United States; now, how do I know that, you ask? Remember, he drafted the first Constitution for the US. I think this would be included in the article, (or in this one, on the section about the term's usage). It's just a recommendation of mine, it's OK if you don't find it useful.--201.210.55.128 (talk) 18:28, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  If you want to blame someone for the ambiguity, it's George Washington 

message: The terms America and american not is exclusivity only of ONE country, because pertence of all americans(south americans and north americans)!!! The USA is arrogant and geocentrist/etnocentrist!!!!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.71.77.13 (talk) 08:11, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: In English, an American is a citizen of the United States of America, a North American is a citizen of North America, and so on. Thus, a Chilean is not an American, but a South American. Ejnogarb (talk) 04:14, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Not true. Look in any good English dictionary/enciclopedia. And note that America is the name of the landmass in the Western Hemisphere (regardless of the question whether is one or two continents). So any South American is also an American. Calin99 (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 20:18, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Not true. Live in an English-speaking community and you'll find that "America" universally refers to the United States. There are occasional exceptions, primarily in scholarly use (which is why dictionaries cover that usage), but in general usage America=United States and American=related to the U.S./from the U.S., period. PS "Stateans" and "Unitedians" are not English words. --Tkynerd (talk) 04:13, 5 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: People who point to dictionary definitions to prove that both meanings are equal are really missing the point.  Every American and Canadian I've ever met, when confronted with the statement "Cubans are Americans" would understand what was meant because yes, the definition does exist.  They would also look at you strangely because while we all know that American CAN mean that, we also know that it almost never does in English.On Thermonuclear War (talk) 07:53, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

text: U.S. Americans are considered U.S. Citizens and not "Stateans" and "Unitedians". American(Can) (talk) 03:25, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Americans"(stateans/unitedians) are very arrogants 

message: "America" should be directed to the "United States of America" and "Americas" should be directed towards the continents. The only country whose name contains the word "America" is the United States of America. Furthermore, its citizens are called Americans. The worldwide consensus is that an American is a person from the United States of America. Ejnogarb (talk) 04:11, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Way to take things into your own hands without seeking a consensus... People from the USA are US Americans, the world doesn't circle around the USA, so go ahead and revert your move — CHANDLER#10 — 04:39, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Nobody in English-speaking countries thinks an American is from anywhere but the United States of America. The majority of people who read this English article will be from these countries. Stop pushing your own agenda. Ejnogarb (talk) 15:06, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

text: Whether you like it or not, there are people who use the term "America" to mean the continents; it is not the primary or most common usage, but it does exist.  It is used fairly commonly in biological literature, for example.  The term is ambiguous and the disambiguation page is appropriate.  Editors should refrain from trying to make other people's usage of a word fit their personal predilections.  --R'n'B (call me Russ) 16:12, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  People of the United States of America are U.S. Citizens if not U.S. Americans. The only time a U.S. Citizen should use the term American is when refering to themselves as a citizen of the continent America. American(Can) (talk) 03:30, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Summary of America = United States of America 

message: America usually means either:
1) The Americas 
YES: Lawfully, The Americas are recognized Continent-Wide through every government in America and worldwide as "The Continent".
2) The United States of America 
CORRECTION: "America" is slang for The United States of America, and does not posses any legal doctrine stating The United States of America is "America". Please refer to "United States" in shortform.
There is no lawfull country named "America" recognized by any government in the world, even in the U.S.A.
Therefore, The United States of America is merely just slang and complete disambiguation to the article and should be removed by lawfull terms of "America" worldwide and local.
American(Can) (talk) 13:25, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Wikipedia has little interest "legal doctrine", but is rather more concerned with actual usage. What you are refering to as "slang" is the single most common usage in the entire world, therefore its inclusion here is not only appropriate, but absolutely necessary. Doc  Tropics 17:14, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

text: Please review our policy regarding legal threats. While your last comment wasn't an explicit legal threat, it certainly leans in that direction. Doc  Tropics 19:11, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

text: See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names) -- SEWilco (talk) 19:15, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

text: There are no agencies with authority over the meaning of the English language. There is no such thing as "legal" or "illegal" usage.  Unlike, say, French, which is governed by the Académie française, English is entirely ungoverned - dictionaries in English are descriptive, not prescriptive (and you'll be unable to find an English language dictionary that doesn't recognise "America" as meaning "the United States" unless you dig up dictionaries that are hundreds of years old (for obvious reasons).  So there we are. WilyD 20:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

text: Entirely beside the point. Disambiguation pages exist to guide readers to topics that they ARE likely to refer to by a particular term. Whether they SHOULD use that term or whether the usage is "correct" or "lawful" or "approved" is simply irrelevant. You are welcome to express your personal, if idiosyncratic, opinions on the latter issue. However, even if you could back up each statement with citations to 100 widely recognized authoritative sources, it would not justify any change in this disambig. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 20:49, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

text: Yes, a good laugh is always helpful, thank you. Possibly you are unaware that WP is "hosted" by servers that are physically based in the state of Florida, and therefore required to observe Florida law, but not whatever private opinion you are expressing. As a resident of Florida, I can assure you that there is no law here that prohibits refering to our country as "America". Any further suggestions along the lines you propose should be directed to the kind of blog that encourages semi-coherent rants; they carry no weight here. Doc  Tropics 21:29, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

text: And you have yet to provide any citations to the contrary besides arbitrary topics not really related to the discussion. Common usage trumps law.--205.202.204.127 (talk) 13:06, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  America usually means either: 

message: America is not United States, please you don't call thoom.
America no es Estados Unidos ¡¡¡Entiendanlo!!!
  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Molinumdeventum. (talk • contribs) 19:16, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Du hast eine kleine mund. Nobody cares dude give up.--Ssteiner209 (talk) 04:50, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  False name 

message: This talk page has archives for old discussions, but so far they have had to be updated manually.  I propose to add a template that will direct a bot to archive the page automatically, by moving any discussion topics that have not been edited in the past 60 days.  I will wait a week or so before doing this to see if there are any comments or objections to this.  --R'n'B (call me Russ) 13:41, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Auto-archiving 

message: It has come to my conclusion since nobody can agree that there are 35 American countries and that every citizen of these 35 countries in the Western Hemisphere are Americans, I have come to believe America never existed. If America existed we would all be American and America would mean either: The Americas and/or It's 35 independent nations, and not just The Americas and The United States of America. 
Just think of Europe, are any European countries exempt from being European? No, because they would not be in Europe. Same goes for America, no country in America is exempt from being American. Kind Regards, American(Can) (talk) 03:53, 6 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: *Doesn't matter anyway, if you want to call it The Americas or America fine, we are different countries with the same nationality anyway, and that is American. American(Can) (talk) 01:38, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: You really are confused about this. (1) In English, "the Americas" refers to North and South America; "America" refers to the United States of America, with occasional exceptions. (2) As you define "America," it is not a nationality, because a term of nationality describes the people of one country. Peruvian, Venezuelan, Mexican, Canadian: those are nationalities. In English, "American" is also a term of nationality that describes the people of the United States of America and no one else. But as you want to use the term, "American" is no more a term of nationality than "Asian" or "European." --Tkynerd (talk) 04:35, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

text: People from the U.S. don't use the term "American" to refer to ourselves because we are arrogant and think we are the only real Americans, we do it because making an adjective out of "United States" sounds very strange to an English speaker. Maybe "estadounidenses" sounds ok to Spanish speakers, but to most English speakers, "United Statsian" sounds very strange. Same way that making an adjective out of "United Kingdom" (United Kingdomite?) would sound strange to Britons. Rreagan007 (talk) 04:37, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  America never existed 

message: Americas: "The Americas, or America, are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions."
Central America: "Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast."
Recent changes to this dab: "The Americas, the combined continents of North, Central and South America".
Central America is not a continent. Disambiguation descriptions should be kept brief. A reader looking for "Americas" will find it with the terminologically correct description. Or we could return to no description, which has served to direct the readers so far. -- JHunterJ (talk) 18:25, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Americas description