I’ve seen estadounidense in a Spanish newspaper before, and for some reason this word is very hard for me to spell.
In French too, there’s “états-unien” (which can also be spelled “étatsunien”). It’s little known and rarely used (in France). I have no idea if it’s more often used by left-leaning speakers. (I do use it from time to time, and I think it can be useful to avoid ambiguity.) I can imagine its use being more common and more political in Québec, compared to France where I live?
While writing this comment, I stumbled on a letter from a very angry listener who wrote to the French public radio “arbitrator” (don’t know if it’s the right word) to complain about a guest using the word “étatZunien” (his spelling) several times (*gasp*) on the air. Apparently, the listener believed the word to be made up, and he wasn’t the only one who wrote to complain about it.
And the arbitrator’s like “um, dude, it’s a real word, it’s in the dictionary since 1961”.
There’s no point linking to that here, really — the letter’s all written in very incoherent French — but it made me laugh.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
people actually use this in conversation?
PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
When they aren’t USA bootlickers.
ps: This is Portuguese. US is Estados Unidos.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Oh I understand the word, it just seems like a lot of syllables.
limpatzk@bookwyr.me 2 weeks ago
That’s not an ABSOLUTE true if you’re talking about Brazil. Yes, some people prefer to use the term “estadunidenses” over “americanos” for political reasons, but I’ve seen some people on the far left using the term “americanos” too. The problem is that “estadunidense” is a long word, even if it has just one additional syllable compared to “americanos”. Most Portugese words has 2-3 syllables and people tend to stick with shorter words.
PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
But have you ever seen someone who is not far left using the term estadounidense/estadunidense?