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Comment by zith | Hacker News Reader

Note that this article interchangeably uses EU and Europe when referring to the European Union and its member countries.

It might seem silly, but I think it bears repeating that not all countries in Europe are part of the European union.

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People also often say America, when talking _only_ about a single country there called “United States of America”.

“America” means “the United States of America” in English despite that not being its original meaning, nor its meaning in various other languages (Romance languages especially).

“Europe” doesn’t mean “the EU” in any language, though maybe it will shift and mean that someday.

Apparently it’s shifting as we speak, Wikipedia disambiguation page for “Europe” already lists “European Union” as one possible meaning:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_(disambiguation)

Some rando's Wikipedia edit is not relevant.

Wiktionary has at least one source https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Europe

Yeah in French it’s the same (at least here in CAN); if someone says “en Amérique” nobody is confused about whether they mean the continent, or asks “du Nord ou Sud?” We all just get that we’re talking about the US.

I don't mind the usage of "America" so much, but the term "American" just seems to be appropriated for U.S. citizens. Unfortunately, there isn't a decent term that refers to U.S. citizens, but not e.g. Mexicans or Canadians. It's possible to separate out Brazilians, Peruvians etc. by using "North Americans", but there seems to be a missing word.

The same way USA is America so Eu is Europe. And when people say Africa they mean Subsaharan Africa. And asia is what is east of the Middle East. Language works like that way sometimes.

I hadn't even heard of a "middle east" until I started using the internet. If that's what the anglosphere calls the middle, then what's the near east? Turns out near east is the "middle east".

Same with Africa. These may be relevant to you but are in no way universal

> If that's what the anglosphere calls the middle, then what's the near east? Turns out near east is the "middle east"

Near East was traditionally the former Ottoman Empire [1]. It’s why Turkey straddles Europe (and Egypt North Africa). It’s a synonym for the Middle East more in contemporary American English than British.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_East

These days, many are preferring "Western Asia" over "Middle East".

Not really the same. 'America' is less used than "north america" and "south america" or 'Americas', and nobody would call the US "North america". Since important countries such as UK and Switzerland are not part of the EU, and since individual countries are just as well known as EU itself, "Europe" or "Western europe" does not stand for EU , except when the context makes it clear.

> And when people say Africa they mean Subsaharan Africa

I don't think I've ever seen someone use "Africa" in a way that excludes the Sahara?

When people say "Africa/n" in a cultural or ethnographic context, Egypt is generally not in the frame.

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