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Someone from Europe is European. Someone from Africa is African. Someone from Asia is Asian. Someone from Oceania is presumably Oceanic. But you can't call a person from the Americas an American due to the United States of America having claimed that term. So what do you call them?

Golden Boy
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    They're North American, South American, Central American, or Caribbean. – Peter Shor May 14 '16 at 22:53
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    Someone from the Americas is American. You can say North American to restrict that to Canada, the US, and Mexico. And some may consider "North American" to include some Central American and Caribbean states. Someone from the USA is "from the US" or a "US citizen". – Hot Licks May 15 '16 at 00:59

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Many outside of the U.S. living in the Americas will argue otherwise. I'd provide clarity by specifying "South American" or "people from the Americas".

Kolibrie
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In American Spanish, "norteamericano" can be specific to the USA.

There's no clear rule in this case that I am aware of, just make your usage specific enough for the given context to indicate your meaning.

If you're writing a technical document or something for the general public where you cant assume anything about the readers background, be as specific as possible.

Damnjoe
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chris
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    In brazilian portuguese, we call people from the US either "estadunidenses" (w/o direct translation to English) or "norte-americanos" (north-americans). – StillBuggin May 14 '16 at 23:19
  • In fact, in Latin America, the hubris or USA-centric naïvety that allows USA citizens to "lay claim" to an origin adjective properly belonging to a whole continent or two (depending on whether you classify the Americas separately), evokes a little bit of disgust and a lot of good humor. – Conrado Jul 21 '20 at 15:48