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From: paul@umich.UUCP (Paul Killey)
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: We're really all Veccuppians...
Message-ID: <187@umich.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-May-85 21:45:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: umich.187
Posted: Sun May 19 21:45:58 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 21-May-85 06:21:54 EDT
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Organization: University of Michigan, EECS Dept., Ann Arbor, MI
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> It might be interesting to trace back, and see where this term really came
> from... might be, at the time it was invented, the USA was the only
> area in the hemisphere that considered itself separate from the mother
> country.

Well, the United States part of USA post-dates the America, certainly.
That is, colonies, then Articles of Federation, then United States.
The earliest Puritans spoke of being on the "American strand" for
example.  This was not just an area, it was the American desert, the
howling wilderness, etc.  the New World where the chosen people might
build a city on a hill.

Let's not confuse the geographers' America with a location independent
of time (and probably place) that was laboriously created by Puritans
and over 200 years of American literary and artistic effort.

--paul