Comment by johnisgood

Comment by johnisgood 3 days ago

Just for the sake of it I checked Wikipedia.

> The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America. When viewed as a single continent, the Americas are the 2nd largest continent by area after Asia, and is the 3rd largest continent by population. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and constitute the New World.

Yeah, OK, not sure "America" refers to The Oh-So-Great United of America according to this. Guess what? You can find 10 in each direction. Specify. If you disagree with "one should specify", why down-vote? Baffling, baffling indeed.

const_cast 2 days ago

This wikipedia excerpt aligns exactly with what I said.

There's North and South America. These, together, are the Americas.

America is not that typically. Which makes sense, America is singular. But the Americas are two. So which one are we referring to?

Because if we say both, then the correct term is Americas. If we say just one, then it's North America or South America.

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JumpCrisscross 3 days ago

> why down-vote? Baffling

It’s a silly side discussion in which nothing new is being said. Complaining that America generally refers to the country is a hobby for some folks, and that’s fine, but it’s only entertaining for them.

If someone needs the America you’re talking about specified, i.e. they can’t figure it out from context, the discussion is sort of moot. (Same way one can use the word Europe despite it being incredibly ambiguous. Overspecificity comes at the cost of conciseness.)

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johnisgood 3 days ago

> Overspecificity comes at the cost of conciseness.
And this is why we have (programming) language wars. Ada or Forth?! :P

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