Europeans are called Europeans, but no single nationality there claims the title as theirs only. Thus in Europe, the Belgians don't tell the Italians, "we are Europeans and you cannot use the label for anyone else" (the gringan contention is that only they are "Americans"). The early colonists in the US adopted the label "Americans" to differentiate themselves from their European colonial masters in Britain -those were Europeans, these "American". In this sense it seems appropriate, adequately distinguishes between the two, there were no other "Americans" at the time. Now we got about 40 different countries across the American continent, to describe the ones from only one of those countries as "Americans" suggests the others are not as well. Additionally, it is clear "American" derives from "America", like Italian from Italy or German from Germany. Logically, American would be "from America" but the US is not known by anyone (other than gringoes) as "America".
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I'm damn tired of hearing Hispanics complain about English usage
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Nowadays Newsweek says 3 in 4 English-speakers learned it as a second language, we have a right to say how the language should be used too.