Re: Nationality or ethnicity with the definite article

["jerryb@xxxxxxxx" jerryb@xxxxxxxx]

Patricia Godfrey wrote:

"The Argentine" is an odd ellipsis of "the Argentine Republic";

Further, it is "Silver" (argent) because its capital's river is El rio
de la Plata, or in our confused translation: The River Plate. Most
speakers of English today probably do not see the silver in the plate.
But at the point the River Plate entered English, the plate _was_
silver not plate and reposed in the butler's safekeeping.

More onomastics: Brazil is really The United States of Brazil. And I
think one or more of our neighbors is also United States of .... There
are several ways of referring to the countries in our hemisphere,
depending on how one wishes to slice it: Las Americas -- the Americas:
every political entity in the hemisphere. Latin America: the countries
of Latin origin (?) or that speak latin languages (let's out Curacao
and Belize); Hispano- America: the Spanish-speaking countries plus
Brazil; etc.

Jerry Bernstein