All this arguing over language! Is it the
hat that fits ...or the
shoe? Or back when you referred to a
seven-stone girl having to defend herself against a fourteen stone guy. Is
seven-stone kind of a cliche for frail, weak, or "lightweight"? Because over here the cliche is
98 lb weakling. I have no idea where the precise number 98 came from. But I find it curiously appropriate that, as a "stone" is 14 lbs.,
7 stones is precisely 98 lbs. And yes, I digress.
My real point is that I am far more interested in all this curious stuff I learn from reading Tez's posts than arguing. Sorry 'bout that folks.
Oh, oh! Another random thought: This one relating to why we Yanks call ourselves "Americans", often to the annoyance of other nations sharing the American continents with us. Firstly arrogance. Yeah, there's a bit of that, for sure, secondly, because although "estadounidense" works in Spanish, in English, "United States-ian" is totally goofy. But more importantly, historically, we were the first European colony here to break away from our parent nation and adopt the name "American" to distinguish ourselves from other colonial regions like Canada, New France, New Spain, and so on.
So, although not the first colony by a long shot, we were the first (and only English speaking nation) to choose the term "American" as our identity ...and it stuck.
Well, I've derailed things long enough. Please go back to bickering! I will sit back and try to stay on track ...and maybe learn some more. Carry on...