Before the USA, North America was called America and all of its inhabitants (or at least the British-descended ones -- any history buffs?) were "American".

It is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I find it amusing that the history of the word itself is an example of what it describes.

> Before the USA, North America was called America and all of its inhabitants (or at least the British-descended ones -- any history buffs?) were "American"

History is overflowing with perpetual name changes for countries, regions, cities, etc. There's nothing unusual about it other than that in this case it applies to the US, which as the sole superpower is a magnet for over-inflating such ridiculous non-issues.