American (word) ("United States person"), which derives from ' ("United States of America"). The Spanish term ' ("North American") is frequently used to refer things and persons from the United States, but this term can also denote people and things from Canada and Mexico. Among Spanish-speakers, North America generally doesn't include Central America or the Caribbean. In other languages, however, there is no possibility for confusion. For example, the Chinese word for "U.S. national" is ' () is derived from a word for the United States, ', where ' is an abbreviation for "Yàměilìjiā" ("America") and ' is "country". The name for
Shina (word) Shina (word) The Sanskrit word ' ( ), meaning China, was transcribed into various forms including (), (), () and (). Thus, the term "Shina" was initially created as a transliteration of "Cina", and this term was in turn brought to Japan with the spread of Chinese Buddhism. Traditional etymology holds that the Sanskrit name, like Middle Persian "Čīn" and Latin "Sina", derives from the Qin state or dynasty (, Old Chinese: ') which ruled China in 221–206 BC, and so "Shina" is a return of "Qin" to Chinese in a different form. The Sanskrit term for China eventually spread