Quote:
Originally posted by MaskedMan
Why do you figure it is that the United States was never given it's own name... and what would you name it?
I mean... ok, put it this way, Canada is what this country is called, Jamaica is what that country is called... but the United States isn't so much a name, it's what it is... it's a description more than a name... it's 50 states united.
I figure this is why people from the US are called Americans... I mean, Canada is in North America as well, but we're Canadians. People are from Mexico are calls Mexicans... most countries have a name to call their inhabitants... but the US has "Americans."
So, what do you think would have been a good name for the US instead of the US?
|
I would argue that the name of the country is 'America'. The word 'America' is a word that defines a continent but it is also used to refer to a country within that continent (as well as to the divided continents of North and South America).
Names are nouns. The head noun of the phrase "United States of America" is the noun "America". The phrase 'United States of America' is an extended name, a descriptive phrase if you will -- the same way that 'The Republic of Macedonia' is the extended name of 'Macedonia'.
Evidence for this: the suffix -an means roughly 'person who lives in country X', where X stands for the country denoted by the root or base word the suffix is attached to. e.g.,
Germany + -an = German = "person who resides in Germany."
Macedonia + -an = Macedonian = "person who resides in Macedonia."
Italy + -an = Italian = "person who resides in Italy."
by analogy ...
America + -an = American = "person who resides in the country, not continent, of America."
Another piece of evidence for this can be summarized in the following way: One of the ways in which the meanings of words change is by either by 'extending' or 'reducing' their frame of reference over time. At one point in the history of English, the word 'hound' ment the same thing that the word 'dog' means today. It referred to the class of dogs in general. Now it refers only to a specific breed of dog. Thus, it's scope of reference has reduced over time. The word 'America' is in the process of doing the same thing, although it still retains both meanings currently - continent AND country.