<p>asbereth, America is just a shortening of U.S.A. to save time. If you want to be specific, there are two America's, so saying America "correctly" isn't saying much.</p>
<p>And why do you expect us to say Football for Soccer and "American Football" for Football? We're in America, so obviously "American Football" is just american to us. People talking about being worldly, but isn't using the language of the country you live in appropriate? If I go to England, then I'll call soccer football. When I'm in America I'll use our own words.</p>
<p>'And why do you expect us to say Football for Soccer and "American Football" for Football?'</p>
<p>ha ha, chris07, please don't take what I said personally. I never expected anyone here to call 'soccer' football. It is just my own personal opinion of the word usage. It's just that I don't like the use of the word 'soccer' to refer to association football. If I said that I don't like 'vegetables', does that mean that I expect everyone to also hate vegetables? The thread title is 'what word or phrase do you hate most?', not 'what word or phrase do you hate most that you think only idiots should use it?', or 'what word or phrase do you hate most that you expect people would not say it?'. Again, if I offended you in anyway, I apologize, as it is certainly not my intention to offend anyone.</p>
<p>'America is just a shortening of U.S.A. to save time. If you want to be specific, there are two America's, so saying America "correctly" isn't saying much.'</p>
<p>Saying just U.S is actually shorter than 'America'. We're not the only country in the American continent, and it just feels [IMO], I don't know, weird, whenever America is used exclusively to refer to the United States (e.g., 'that guy is not from America. He's Canadian'). The same thing can also be said about the usage of the word 'Asia' here (or in the UK to be fair). The Asian continent does not just consist of East Asian (or South Asian in the UK use of the word) countries, and the same reason of my dislike of the word usage of 'America' applies. Again this is just my opinion, and if you feel offended (for whatever reasons), then I apologize.</p>
<p>I had an information session at a really prestigious university, and the guy giving the session said "irregardless." He was a graduated student. An English major.</p>
<p>haha, I opened this thread planning to make a comment about the discussion a group of friends just had about the word "moist," and add it to the list, but there it is at the top of the page!</p>