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"Yup, what I see from those sites is, an American is a person from the United States. Thanks for confirming that... it's how people in English use the word. You can't argue with an entire culture that the way they do something is wrong."
If you wanna troll please go to the Languages forum, it's a more proper place for that and I'm sure you can make yourself at home there.
"What's your next project, fighting with the French because they use too many silent letters?"
This is an English forum, if you wanna talk about other languages please go the the Languages forum.
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Yes, Brazilians are also American, Mexicans are also American. Those dictionaries are right. But those are secondary meanings! And seem rare too. Maybe very rare, I don't know.
Open the window.
Webster's dictionary, window: an area at the limits of the earth's sensible atmosphere through which a spacecraft must pass for successful reentry
It's a common utterance.
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There are a lot of "Guests" on here. I am directing my comments to the Guest that asked if I was "abnormal" on page 6 of this thread, and then proceeded to ramble on about insulting the English language, citing to Merriam-Webster and WordReference.com as authorities for his point of view. Unfortunately for Guest, none of his points pass muster.
I take your points one by one, and also recommend that you read the comments of the Guest that posted after you, as I am in full agreement with him.
I. USE OF "AMERICAN" IN SPANISH
As someone pointed out to you earlier, we're not talking about Spanish here; rather, we're speaking and talking about English, and how the term "American" is used. When in Rome, speak Italian. When in Buenos Aires, speak Spanish. When in an English-speaking city/country, speak English. In English, when using the term American to describe a nationality or nation of people, it refers to persons from the United States. "United Statian" or any variation thereof does not exist.
If someone were to refer to the "American continent," could that be inclusive of Mexico, Argentina, or Honduras, etc.? Sure, but as I said above, when talking about nationality, it refers to people from the United States.
II. ACCUSATION OF "INSULTING MY LANGUAGE"
I am sorry to be rather harsh here, but you need to work on your English. Much of your post was quite difficult to read. As my writing reflects, insulting the English language is not in my repertoire, and I certainly don't need to "learn [English] a bit." Quite the contrary; I am telling you how we use a particular word in English. If you don't like it, or disagree with its "logic," well, I am sorry, but in the words of Mick Jagger -- "You can't always get what you waaaant."
No one is making a "fuss" here either. This is a discussion, and native speakers are telling you how the term is used in English. The fact that some people don't like it or refuse to accept it as such is of no concern to me.
III. Merriam-Webster & WordReference.com
While I do post on the WordReference.com forums from time to time -- most often in the Portuguese forum -- I have no intention of writing the administrators of either one of those sites. I am telling you the way the term is used. Since I am a native English speaker, and you, quite obviously, are not, I think you can give me a little deference on this. However, you can also pick up a newspaper, click around the Internet, or visit an English-speaking country. To use a well-known cliché in the Anglophone world: "The proof is in the pudding."
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You and your fellow Americans said that America and American exist in English ONLY in connection with the US. I've proved that's wrong, and I can keep proving it every day:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&as_q=&as_epq=American+Countries&as_oq=&as_eq=South+North+Central+Latin+Hispanic+Ibero+Anglo&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images
Of course is about logic. Just because you haven't got the habit of thinking of The Americas as a whole it doesn't mean there is not such possibility.
Maybe there are not many Pan-American events, but ¿how would you talk about them? ¿Are you going to keep the 'pan' all the time? Maybe you would, but people outside the English speaking world won't do it, or at least not all the time, because they don't feel that need. It's not their fault that the names of your country, continent and pan-continent follow an odd pattern, with the non-qualified name belonging to the inner part.
You can argue they are not native speakers, or that I'm not a native speaker, well I can't discuss that because that's what I am.
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You need to work on your reading comprehension. The link you provided talks about "American countries." If you had taken the time to actually read what I wrote, you would have noticed that I said the term "American" can apply to other countries on a continental scale. There are some people who don't recognize a difference between North and South America. They see America as all one continent. In that sense, "American" countries would be in the Americas.
However, in terms of *nationality*, it refers to people from the United States. Your links don't dispute that fact.
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Unfortunately a lot of people think like this Guest here. Canadians and South Americans in particular get really bent out of shape that the United States of America is called "America".
Basically they're just looking for excuses to bad mouth America. Pretty sad it's coming from our Canadian brothers to the north, bunch of ingrates.
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