15 years ago today, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned from an extended trip into space that earned him the nickname "the last Soviet citizen." When he had left Earth in May of 1991, he'd had plenty of comrades. But by the time Krikalev landed ten months later, the USSR had dissolved and his countrymen claimed new citizenship. (来源：专业英语学习网站 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

While we can resist the urge to label Krikalev the last man on earth we thought that would happen to, we will yield to our desire to salute another Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin. We overlooked Gagarin last month when we misidentified John Glenn as the first person to have orbited earth. Of course, it was Gagarin, not Glenn, who first orbited our planet; Glenn was the first American to do so.

Moving from Soviet to Russian to American citizenship got us thinking about the sometimes controversial application of the word American to a person more literally understood as a United Statesian—that is, "a native or resident of the United States of North America."

Originally, back in the 16th century, American named an "American Indian of North or South America;" it then came to name a native or inhabitant of one of those two continents. In the 18th century, British folks began applying American to British colonials living on the other side of the ocean. When those rebels declared their independence, they adopted the term; and, as illogical or "culturally aggressive" as it may seem, the term has stuck.