This here thread is getting to be a load of ..... corned beef. The word "America" was first penned in 1507 by an amateur German mapper by the name of Waldseemuller, after the man he so much admired for being the first to RECOGNIZE that what Columbus had discovered was not India, but a whole New World. Amerigo Vespucci was his name, and the continent was what we know call South America. Subsequently, when the northern land-mass was discovered, the names North and South America were printed on the maps of the times.

I don't know for a fact, but I reckon the reason that people from the United States are called "Americans" is because our country is properly called the United States of America. We have become "Americans" to most of the rest of the world, probably because it's just easier and quicker than it is to say United States American, or whatever. Of course, we're usually referred to by much more colorful terms than simply "American", such as "f--king Americans", "American bastards", "pain-in-the-arse Americans", "American ass holes", "bloody American tourists", and other nice things. We all know that it's people from the United States that are being spoken of in those terms. But I suppose that's perfectly acceptable, as long as we don't have the hard neck to call ourselves "Americans." Yeah?

Now, think about this. If you're from Canada, Meh-hee-co, or the U.S., you're from the North American continent. So technically, you're American. Right? But I'd bet money that were you to call someone from Brazil an "American", they'd jump all over you and tell you they're either SOUTH American, or Brazilian.

Does anybody really give a cabbage about all this? By the way, I love corned beef, and I'm half Irish. Could there be some connection?

HS (Proud Irish-American from the U.S of A.)