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This article is about terms applied to people. For terms used for the United States as a nation-state, see List Of Terms For The United States Of America . There are a number of alternative adjectives to ''American'' as a Demonym for a person of the United States that can not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas . The most widely used and recognised term in English for a person of the United States is "American." Other terms were used historically, and some modern attempts have been made to develop different terms for political or humorous reasons. The use of American as a national demonym for United States citizens has been challenged primarily by Latin Americans (and Canadians in the past) since 1816 or earlier {Link without Title} . Some, mostly outside of the United States, perceive use of the word ''America'' for the United States of America as Culturally Aggressive as others use the word to refer to the entirety of the New World, though residents of what would become and what is the United States of America have been using the adjectives ''America'' and ''American'' to describe themselves since colonial times. PEJORATIVES The best-known alternative words for people of the United States in English are understood to be Pejorative and may also be ambiguous:
ALTERNATIVE TERMS IN ENGLISH One colonial adjective was Virginian, since Virginia Was The Mother Of Colonies And States . Virginia as a Toponym , originally extended all along the Eastern Seaboard . Other regions like '' New England '' and the '' Mid-Atlantic '' emerged as splinter collectives from Joint Stock administration in the Virginia Company . New England was originally called "northern Virginia", especially in transport manifests for colonists. Economic divergence stimulated separated identities, especially since the London (based at Fort James ) and Plymouth (based at Fort Saint George ) companies were divided by the Dutch and Swedish Middle Colonies . Alternative demonyms proposed for U.S. citizens are: :from America:
:from Columbia :
:from United States America :
:others:
Although there might be good arguments in favor of some of these terms, "American" remains by far the most common word for a citizen of the USA. "Usonian" is used for an architectural style, and "Washingtonian" remains as the adjective for the state of Washington and the city of Washington, D.C. "Columbian", derived from the original popular name for the United States, '' Columbia '', would likely cause unacceptable confusion with "Colombian", which today relates to the modern Republic of Colombia . ''Colombia'', like ''America'', Historically Referred To The New World as a whole. OTHER LANGUAGES In Spanish, the term 'American' is more ambiguous. In the Ibero-American countries, the use of 'American' to refer only to U.S. citizens could be considered factually incorrect and culturally aggressive.
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