But then what we lack is a term for inhabitants of the continent. Though, if you view it as two continents instead, there's North American and South American (or Latin American, as it's called on the other side of the ocean).

"American" as an adjective, depending on context can refer to either USA or the American continent(s).

Just like for example "Irish" can refer to either the Republic of Ireland (e.g. "the Irish president said...") or all of Ireland island (e.g. "the Irish climate is..."). So the phrase "an Irish man" can mean either, depending on context.

It can create amibguity, but there are many words in the English language with multiple ambiguous meanings depending on context.

Just like what happens to the name of our country, The Netherlands abroad: the two north-western provinces of The Netherlands are together called Holland (North and South Holland). That's what the term Holland designates here, just those two provinces. But outside of the Netherlands 'Holland' is used for the country as a whole.

Where I'm living, in the east (Gelderland), I'm from Holland as I was born and raised in North Holland, making me a 'Hollander' but my fellow townspeople, if born in this city, aren't Hollanders, nor would they describe themselves as 'from Holland' (except when talking to non-Dutchmen abroad, they might). They'd only designate themselves with the name of their home town, as 'Geldrian' isn't really an identity. The province of Gelderland, being the largest province in Holland in landmass, is a patchwork of regions with wholly different identities.

I also feel that American is geographically misleading. At least it should be North American, maybe also Central North American or US American.

But usually I use "US citizen". I think this is the shortest possible yet still correct and unique naming.

Septic tanks:-)

"United Stadians?" :)

In that a contest ?


No, seriously, in french we do use sometimes "étasuniens" which would mean "unitedstatians". But I never realised there wasn't such a word in english.

I sometimes used to say Yankees, because I love that word and its old west flavor (I feel like a sombrero-wearing mexican desperado when I use it), but I've been pointed out that it was a bit offensive, or something. So, well, heh...

When writing, I call them 'usamericans'; when speaking, 'gringos', 'yankees' or 'estadounidenses'. The latter is the proper term in spanish.

Yup, and it grinds my gears to hear them called "americanos", when the Spanish language happens to have a perfectly valid, perfectly accurate term to refer to them specifically, setting them apart from any other inhabitants of the American continent. Then again, I tend to overreact to poor language usage. Also, some of theses terms vary from region to region and from language to language. If I am not mistaken, Americans (citizens of the US) would use "the Americas" to refer to the American continent as a whole, rather than "America" (which they use to refer to just their country). So yeah...

I'm a Yooper and we are our own country, despite what the fucking maps say. :D

GOG seriously needs to put Keweenaw on the "from" options pull down.

Saiyans.

Thats how us Latinos used to call them.

Now these days we say Gringo ;)

(No offense to US users)
Well the japanese always portrayed US people with Blonde hair:

Ken and Guile from Street Fighter.
If you watched Hajime no Ippo Bryan Hawk.

Statesmen.