One of my first arguments on here was over what constitutes a continent. I feel vindicated.
this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
276 points (97.3% liked)
Today I Learned
29051 readers
596 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
That's why there's always the argument that the country should not be called "America". English speaking countries split North and South America as separate continents, so America the country does not get confused with America the continent. In Spanish (might be regional), it's all one continent, so someone saying that they are from "America" doesnt narrow it down to a country.
I think it's fine to just have different conventions in different languages. If you want country names to be 100% unambiguous in all languages, you basically have to change the name of half of the countries out there. E.g., "Deutschland" could refer to all germanic-speaking countries, but everyone recognizes that it just means Germany.
It's fine enough even all in one language. There's the US state of Georgia and the county of Georgia. And outside the occasional funny misunderstanding, it's usually clear from context.
That’s why there’s always the argument that the country should not be called “America”.
I think, though am not sure, that this comes from the 13 colonies having once been "British America", which was by default what people meant when they talked about "America" in English, which stuck after independence.
E.g., “Deutschland” could refer to all germanic-speaking countries, but everyone recognizes that it just means Germany.
nowadays anyway; before the German Empire was founded, "Deutschland" was usually understood as the entire German-speaking region (what we call "deutschsprachiger Raum" today), and between 1949 and 1990 "Deutschland" could mean the Federal Republic of Germany (usually including West Berlin), or the Federal Republic of Germany plus German Democratic Republic plus Berlin, or Germany in the borders of 1937, or even just East Germany whose constitution initially started "Deutschland ist eine unteilbare demokratische Republik".
Isn't it because Benjamin Franklin (I think) started naming his fellow country men "Americans", in order to create cohesion?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Curios to know if you got it from here: https://lemmy.world/post/44478819/22754825
Could well be a coincidence, but I think it would be fun if I helped in the genesis of this thread :)
load more comments
(2 replies)
There can be only ONE Pangea gang 4L
There's a great map men episode on this
There's anywhere between 2 and 7:
- Afroeurasia (inc australia , antartica counts as an ocean)
- Americas
or
- Europe
- Asia
- Africa
- North America
- South America
- Oceania
- Antartic
There's no way Australia counts as the same continent as Afroeurasia, and Antarctica is a landmass (unlike the Arctic ice). 4 continents minimum.
So you're saying pi continents is possible?
I'm sold.
load more comments
(1 replies)