Americas

== <span id="Naming">Etymology and naming</span> ==
{{Main|Naming of the Americas}}
[[File:Amerigo Vespucci (with turban).jpg|thumb|upright|America is named after Italian explorer [[Amerigo Vespucci]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-america-turns-500_N.htm |title=Cartographer Put 'America' on the Map 500 years Ago |work=USA Today |location =Washington, D.C. |date=April 24, 2007 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=November 30, 2008}}</ref>]]

The name "America" was first recorded in 1507. A two-dimensional globe created by [[Martin Waldseemüller]] was the earliest recorded use of the term.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/8ea8f3f87201426f946b400b5c78ce7f|title=Oldest map to use word 'America' up for sale|last=Lawless|first=Jill|work=[[News and Record]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=November 7, 2017|access-date=June 5, 2019}}</ref> The name was also used (together with the related term ''Amerigen'') in the ''[[Cosmographiae Introductio]]'', apparently written by [[Matthias Ringmann]], in reference to South America.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0309/maps.html|title=The Map That Named America (September 2003) – Library of Congress Information Bulletin|website=Loc.gov}}</ref> It was applied to both North and South America by [[Gerardus Mercator]] in 1538. "America" derives from ''Americus'', the [[Latinisation of names|Latin]] version of Italian explorer [[Amerigo Vespucci]]'s first name. 

The feminine form ''America'' was originally used to refer to the newly discovered continent, which is why it was accorded with the feminine names of the other continents: [[Asia]], [[Africa]], and [[Europe|Europa]].<ref name=Smiths>Toby Lester, "Putting America on the Map", ''Smithsonian'', 40:9 (December 2009)</ref>

Since the 1950s,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lewis-myth.html | title = The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography (Chapter 1) |publisher = University of California Press|accessdate=August 14, 2018}}</ref> however, North and South America have generally been considered by English speakers as separate continents, and taken together are called ''the Americas'', or more rarely ''America''.<ref>See for example: [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/america america – Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary]. Retrieved on January 27, 2008; "[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/america dictionary.reference.com america]". Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Accessed: January 27, 2008.</ref><ref>Marjorie Fee and Janice MacAlpine, ''Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage'' (2008) page 36 says "In Canada, ''American'' is used almost exclusively in reference to the United States and its citizens." Others, including ''The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary'', ''The Canadian Oxford Dictionary'', ''The Australian Oxford Dictionary'' and ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' all specify both the Americas and the United States in their definition of "American".</ref><ref name="oxfordc">"America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' ({{ISBN|0-19-214183-X}}). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of ''Americus'', the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). The name ''America'' first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16c, a name of the western hemisphere, often in the plural ''Americas'' and more or less synonymous with ''the New World''. Since the 18c, a name of the United States of America. The second sense is now primary in English:&nbsp;... However, the term is open to uncertainties:&nbsp;..."</ref> When conceived as a unitary continent, the form is generally ''the continent of America'' in the singular. However, without a clarifying context, singular ''America'' in English commonly refers to the [[United States of America]].<ref name=oxfordc />