Formerly /u/Zagorath on the alien site.

  • 2 Posts
  • 26 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 15th, 2023
  • Zagorath@aussie.zonetoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•Other meaning for USA people
    4·
    3 hours ago

    The reason for this is simple: the word in English is “American”. Because in English speaking countries, it is almost universally the case that we talk about the 7 continents. And in the rare case we talk about 6 continents, it’s from merging Europe and Asia (which, frankly, is blatantly a far superior model of the continents), not merging North America and South America.

    So “America” unambiguously refers to the country, and there’s no need for estadounidense, any more than there’s a need for “commonwealthian” for someone from the Commonwealth of Australia.

  • Zagorath@aussie.zonetoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•What are some issues(in your society, surroundings or pther areas) that you see, that would be relatively easy to fix, but isn't getting fixed because most people don't take notice of it?
    8·
    4 hours ago

    Motornormativity. Not all of it, it’s a huge problem, but there are so many really small bits that could easily be addressed. Like get rid of slip lanes, and make corners into side streets sharp right angles. When you’ve got a bike path (yes, putting in the bike path at all is one of those big difficult problems, but when you’re getting that done anyway), making sure it has clear priority when it crosses side streets through the use of wombat crossings and road markings.

    I dunno how to get it noticed. Half the problem is getting people to acknowledge it even is a problem when it’s directly pointed out to them. Half the people are so deep in carbrain they refuse to acknowledge there’s even a problem with everything being centred around cars. And most of the rest buy into the neoliberal “pErsOnAL reSpONsiBiliTy” nonsense and blame crashes (or “accidents”, as they invariably call them) entirely on the bad driving (or worse—victim blaming it on the cyclist or pedestrian), rather than being willing to acknowledge that bad driving is inevitable and designing so that (a) bad drivers have other viable alternatives to driving if they want, and (b) the infrastructure could be designed to be forgiving of bad driving and reduce the likelihood and severity of crashes.

  • Zagorath@aussie.zonetoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•Other meaning for USA people
    2·
    4 hours ago

    I dunno how true it is, but I’ve heard it gets even more specific once you’re in the north. I shared a map in another comment detailing the different meanings of it.

    As for the etymology, apparently it goes back to Dutch settlers of New Netherlands, and may be connected to the name Janneke. It seems to have gone from being used by English settlers to Dutch settlers to being used in precisely the reverse at some point, and has at times meant either someone of English descent, of early Protestant descent, or other things.

    It was used more generally by outsiders to refer to Americans as far back as the Revolutionary War (the song Yankee Doodle Dandy was originally making fun of Americans—macaroni being a sophisticated style of dress), so its history being used in that way actually predates the Civil War associations that I think many Americans would give it today.

    So yeah, it really does have a fascinating linguistic history.

    Also, weird…this is the second time in as many days I’ve had cause to look up Yankee Doodle Dandy.

  • Zagorath@aussie.zonetoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•Other meaning for USA people
    15·
    5 hours ago

    In America, yankee means people from a particular part of America. But we use it here in Australia to mean any American. It’s especially fun when people from the south (that is…the south of the country America, not from the continent of South America) take offence at the term IMO.

    We also use “seppo” which is an Australian shortening slang of “septic”, which is rhyming slang (of the kind used in both Australia and London, England) that comes via “septic tank” via “yank”.

    Gringo seems strange to me. I thought that was a predominantly Latin American term for white people, and would apply equally well to Americans as Canadians as Australians as (of particular relevance to someone from Spain) English…but only the white of each, so it would seem to me it shouldn’t work as synonymous with “American” because it excludes African Americans, Asian Americans, etc. But I’m not Spanish or Latin American, so I might just be misunderstanding the word.

    Edit: what yank means depending on where you are (allegedly):

  • Zagorath@aussie.zonetoPeople Twitter@sh.itjust.works•FraudEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    fwiw the word “commonwealth” is…essentially meaningless. If you hear someone say commonwealth on its own, they’re probably talking about the Commonwealth of Nations as @[email protected] described. The Commonwealth of Nations is basically a loose grouping of countries that do various things together. Probably the most noteworthy thing they do together is the Commonwealth Games, a sort of mini-Olympics.

    But several other things also use the word. There’s the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet states. There’s Australia, a country whose full name (in the way the full name of America is the United States of America) is the Commonwealth of Australia (and in Australia, “the Commonwealth” is sometimes used synonymously with “the federal Government”). There are several states in America which are properly termed commonwealths, such as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.