Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/08/first-american-coronavirus-dea.html
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An American citizen died of corona virus in China, but it was not an “American corona virus death”. An “American corona virus death” would be someone currently in America who died of the corona virus, whatever their nationality.
Language matters.
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Maybe you didn’t realize this, but “American” can be used as a noun to mean a person who is from America. The sentence by itself is perhaps ambiguous, thankfully, that sentence had other sentences close by to help out. As you figure out, those sentence make clear that it was an American in China that died, not someone in America who died.
So cries every pedant in an attempt to justify their boring diversion of a conversation, even as they willfully ignore the context of everything around them. There is something ironic about about a person harping on a boring detail missing all of the details that make their demand for (what they think is) perfect precision unnecessary.
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… and a heavy smoker.
No need to be an ass, language does matter, else you wouldn’t be picking them apart. They are technically correct, the best kind of correct.
No, they are both pedantic and incorrect, the worst kind of incorrect. American can be a noun that means a person from America. The title is literally correct.
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