#Proud to be an ... #American? @Wikipedia

---

The word #America supposedly comes from the name of the navigator who "discovered it" #Amerigo Vespucci (or maybe a mountain-range in Nicaragua; or maybe Richard #Amerike (or #Ameryk or #apMeryk ... names that spring from the same root-meaning as 'Amerigo'), a merchant of Bristol; or maybe something somewhere within more history than I really want to review right now).  

#American #Americana #Americans

"Amerigo" (a form of #Emmerich) is rooted in ancient words that mean “Work-Ruler.” 

The name of the mountain-range #Amerrisque (a name heard- & popularized by the crew of Christopher Columbus' ship) comes from the Mayan word meaning "the Country of the Wind" (... "where the wind comes sweepin` down the plain"?)

---

The 'American Exceptionalist'^* in me wants to believe that our country's name (which we share with a whole other continent as well as -the rest of our own) comes from somewhere other than 'the name of an Italian explorer'—that it stands for something "unique to this locale" (Edgar Allan Poe suggested "Appalachia" instead).

So 'who' decided this place should be called "America"? (looking-up the etymology of "why," I find out that 'the answer' usually is "who"—'who made it happen' will often tell you most of 'why an occurrence happened' ... the 'why's I'll list above)....

I think it was decided in much the same way as we decide 'who wins' in America—not necessarily 'the rightful majority,' but at-least 'a Persistent Plurality.'

That's the 'America' I'm proud of

---

The word |Pride (Proud)| is built on ancient words that mean Before, For, |Instead of, Forward, in Front of, First, |Chief + to Be ( |Prowess, Haughtiness, |Pomp ... Group of Lions). 

#Proud #Prouder #Proudly #Proudest

---

^*Most Americans would call it 'the "Patriot" in me,' but that's another 'negative term that we Americans try to spin into a positive' (like "Yankee Doodle Dandy" or "Rebel" or–one that Trump's trying to spin into a 'positive'–"Elite.")