gringo

The Gringo's restaurant in Stafford, Texas.

Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a Spanish word used in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, generally to denote people from the United States, more specifically white Americans. Although it has various anecdotal etymologies, and various connotative or interpretive meanings, its etymology is "griego", the Spanish word for "a Greek person" that serves as a colloquial shorthand for any foreign (non-Spanish) person —similar to how the English language expression "it's Greek to me" can apply to any foreign (non-English) language.

Recorded evidence suggests it was used in Spain long before it crossed the Atlantic to denote foreign, non-native speakers of Spanish.^[1] The American Heritage Dictionary classifies gringo as "offensive slang," "usually disparaging," and "often disparaging."^[2] Hispanophones disagree on whether the term is derogatory; it is not considered as such by the authoritative Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española.

Etymology

Early use of the term in Spain is documented in the form of period dictionary entries. The etymology of its later use in Latin America is largely anecdotal and unsupported.

Spain

The word was in use in greek in early 19th century. Its entry in a 1817 French-Spanish dictionary, written by Antonio de Capmany,^[3] includes:

.. hablar en griego, en guirigay, en gringo. (p. 28) ^[4] Translation: ... to speak in Greek, in "guirigay", in "gringo".

Gringo, griego: aplicase a lo que se dice o escribe sin entenderse. (p. 448) ^[5] Translation--Gringo, Greek : applies to what is said or written without understanding it.

According to Rawson, it appears in the Diccionario Castellano in 1787. That dictionary says that it was used in Malaga to refer to anyone who spoke Spanish badly, and in Madrid in reference to the Irish. Gringo probably comes from the Spanish griego, or Greek, indicating a foreign person. So it is akin to the phrase "it's Greek to me" (or in Spanish "hablar en griego") and the word "barbarian."

Furthermore, according to the Catalan etymologist Joan Coromines, gringo is derived from griego (Spanish for "Greek"), the archetypal term for an unintelligible language (a usage found also in the Shakespearean "it was Greek to me" and its derivative "It's all Greek to me"). From referring simply to language, it was extended to people speaking foreign tongues and to their physical features — similar to the development of the ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (bárbaros), "barbarian."^[6][7][8] Still, scholars are not in agreement about the correct origin of this word.

Latin America

The many popular unsupported etymologies that exist for the use of this term in Latin America include:

United States Army

One story that is widely repeated among Mexican-Americans as well as throughout the Southwest United States was that during the Mexican-American War the Mexicans who knew little English referred to the Americans' green uniforms and would shout, "Green go!", meaning "Leave our country." But the Mexican-American War occurred during the years of 1845-1848 and the U.S. Army had blue uniforms in the 19th Century. The olive drab green uniform was not adopted by the U.S. Army until the reforms of General Leonard Wood in 1908.

Irish-American traitors

When the Mexican-American War began, hundreds of Irish-Americans fought on the side of Mexico. Sent by the U.S. government initially to fight against Mexico, they came to doubt why they were fighting a Catholic country. Resentful over mistreatment from their generally Anglo-Protestant officers, these Irish (and other immigrants) deserted the U.S. Army and joined forces with Mexico. Led by Captain John Riley of County Galway, they called themselves St. Patrick's Battalion (in Spanish, San Patricios).^[9] Green was the color of the Irish, and the soldiers sang "Green Grow the Rushes 0!" (based on a Robert Burns poem) or their version of an earlier Scottish tune "Green Grows the Laurel", which they called "Green Grow the Lilacs". This latter tells the story of an Irish soldier who'd fallen in love with a Mexican lass. When the songs became popular with American cowboys, those listening across the border in Mexico couldn't hear the words clearly, only the repeated "Green Grow". Over time this changed into the term "Gringo" (green go), later used to refer to people from the United States.^[10]

Railroad construction in Chile

When William Wheelwright built the railroad from Caldera to Copiapo in Chile, see: History of rail transport in Paraguay, the workers were trained to stop on red lights and to go on green lights. But they did not understand English, so William would repeatedly say:

"Green - Go Green - Go Green - Go"

And therefore all they remembered was "Gringo" and began calling him that.

Brazil

In Brazil, the meaning and use of gringo differs significantly from the Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.

Etymologically, the word is documented as not native to the European Portuguese language and is actually borrowed from Spanish since the 19th century at least. Thus the Greek reference is reinforced there as the word "grego" for Greek in Portuguese (without the "i") would not have given "gringo." Also in Brazilian or even Portuguese popular culture, someone unintelligible is traditionally said to speak Greek (sometimes German or, much more recently, Chinese).

This is also reflected in that the word usage is not naturally widespread and only generally in regions exposed to tourism like Rio de Janeiro. There, the word means basically any foreigner, North American, European or even Latin American, though generally applying more to any English-speaking person and not necessarily based on race or skin color but rather on attitude and clothing. The word for fair skinned and blond people would be rather "Alemão" (i.e., German).

In São Paulo, the word is used to refer to any foreigner at all. The feminine form is "gringa". This usage is evident on the fact that MTV Brazil's foreign-programming daily track, during which mostly American and British MTV reality shows are broadcast, is named "MTV Gringa". MTV "Station" is a feminine term in Portuguese.

In Rio Grande do Sul, the word is used to refer to any people from the countryside, specially the ones from Caxias do Sul, where most of the population is light skinned.

In English

"Gringo" has been in use in the English language since the 19th century.^[11] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the term in an English source is in John W. Audubon's Western Journal of 1849;^[11] Audubon recalls that he and his associates were derided and called "Gringoes" while passing through the town of Cerro Gordo, Veracruz.^[12] The earliest recorded use of the word in an English-language context is in an 1871 article from the Albuquerque, New Mexico newspaper The Republican Review, which describes an assault by three Mexican American men on an evidently Anglo-American woman, whom they called "a gringo bitch."^[11]

Other uses

In Mexican cuisine, a gringa is a flour tortilla with taco al pastor with cheese, heated on the comal and then served with a salsa de chile (chile sauce).

In the 1950s, the blue fifty Mexican peso bill was called an ojo de gringa ("gringa's eye").^[13]

Gringolandia

The word Gringolandia (Gringoland) is a mock, single-word name for the United States of America.^{[citation needed]} Gringolandia derives from the compounding of the words "gringo" and "-landia" (land of) into this term. This composition was inspired by the word Disneyland (from the name Disney and the word land), which in Spanish was translated as Disneylandia. Walt Disney's movies and cartoons have always been popular in Mexico, and they inspired the mock name "Gringolandia."

The term is also used by natives of Quito, Ecuador to describe a sector of the city called La Mariscal. This neighborhood is the entertainment and tourism hub of Quito, and subsequently attracts many foreigners. Hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops in La Mariscal cater to tourists, students, expats, and business travellers coming from many parts of the world, particularly from English-speaking countries, and so it is jokingly nicknamed Gringolandia.

Meanings

• The Anglosphere: Latino migrants to the U.S. occasionally use the term as a more derogatory synonym of Anglo.^{[citation needed]} however, it is also said the term may apply to anyone who lives in the U.S. regardless of race.
• In Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia and Venezuela the term applies exclusively for U.S. citizens, widely accepted as a colloquial demonym. Depending on the context, it may or may not be pejorative.
• In Central America, the word is not pejorative. In Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama the term refers to U.S. citizens (regardless of race).^[1] In the Dominican Republic it also means a non-free range store bought chicken (pollo gringo), it's also a way to call the people from the United States, often derogatorily.^{[citation needed]} In Puerto Rico, the term refers to U.S. citizens in the U.S. mainland.

A Gringa reads the Gringo Gazette in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

• In the countries of South America where this term is used, the word is not pejorative. In some countries it may be used to refer to any foreigner who does not speak Spanish as a native language, or in Brazil, someone who does not speak Portuguese as a native language, but in other countries it is used just or especially to refer to U.S. citizens; it may also be used to describe a blond or brunette white native person with soft facial features and light coloured eyes. For instance, it is a popular nickname.^[1]
  • In Uruguay it is used to refer to citizens of the United States in a non pejorative way.
  • In Peru the word gringo is used all over the country among the white and non white population. It is used to refer to white people, particularly those with fairer features. It is not pejorative.
  • In Ecuador the word gringo can be used to refer to foreigners from any country, not only the United States, though the likelihood of being described as a gringo increases the closer one's physical appearance is to that of a stereotypical Northern European.
  • In Argentina it was used in the past to refer to all European immigrants. In modern times the term is mostly applied to refer to Anglo people, including people from the US or the UK. It can also be used to refer to small and medium farmers from the Pampas, often of European descent, that still use it as a nickname, denoting their whitish complexion.
  • In Chile the word gringo refers both to non-Spanish speaking foreigners, especially of Northern European descent, and also to United States citizens of any origin.

See also

Look up gringo or right in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Anglo
• Bolillo
• Farang
• Gabacho
• Gaijin
• Goy
• Güero (disambiguation) (Huero)
• Gweilo
• List of slang terms for white people in non-Western countries
• Old Gringo
• Pakeha
• Pocho
• Use of the word American
• Yankee
• Canuck

References