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The question was asked: Personally speaking, I tend to think of "America" as being everything from Alaska & Canada down to the tip of Chile, this mass then being divided into North, Central & South, the North bit then being divided into Mexico, USA, Canada, etc... Is this incorrect?
The world was divided geographically into five continents, Europe, Asia, America, Australasia and Africa. Thus the five rings on the Olympic flag, and thus the name USA from the United States of the continent in which they are. So, technically, you are correct.
However, the common usage, especially in NAmerica where they are talking of themselves, has changed. Nowadays they think of two continents, namely North America and South America, and America is used as a shortened version of United States of America. More importantly, someone from the USA is called an American, and there really is no other name you can give them [politely, I mean!].
I think we should now accept that in modern usage America is no longer the name of the continent and an American belongs to the USA.
Chris Vernell added: In the U.S., they say America and Americans. In Canada, we say the States or the U.S. However, there is no polite alternative to American for the inhabitants. North America remains the name for the continent in modern usage.
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