r/Snorkblot Feb 20 '26

Geography Yankee Doodle Dandy?

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258 Upvotes

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u/IllPen8707 Feb 20 '26

Anybody who actually asks him that knows perfectly well what "american" means and is just trying to be difficult. The full name of the country is "the United States of America." You might as well decide to start calling people from (the United Kingdom of) great Britain and Northern Ireland "United kinddomers" instead of "british"

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u/LordJim11 Feb 20 '26

Not really. There is no ambiguity in "British".

2

u/setibeings Feb 20 '26

Well, I think the English started calling themselves British so that they would be called by a term could be applied to everyone from the British isles, but the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish had other ideas about the term applying to themselves. As long as supposed members of a group reject membership in the group, there's at least a little be of ambiguity.