Gringo
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- This article is about the term as used by Spanish-speaking or Portuguese-speaking people. For the Sophie Treadwell play, see Gringo (play).
Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a pejorative term in the Spanish and Portuguese languages used in some countries of Latin America to refer to native English speakers (from the United States in particular, but also from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere) as well as other non-English speakers of European heritage. The American Heritage Dictionary classifies the term as offensive slang [1], though many who use it do not do so pejoratively.
In some regions of Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and nearby areas, "Gringo" is used nonpejoratively to refer to any European immigrant other than one from Spain or Portugal.
The term does lend itself to derogatory, paternalistic or endearing connotations sometimes, depending on the context and the intent of the user.
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[edit] Meaning
- Mexico, Central America, and northern South America: In these areas the word may mean specifically a U.S. citizen, though it is also used in referring to Europeans. This should not be confused with gachupín, which is used only for people of Spanish origin, and makes reference to the Spanish colonists of the 15th century. In Central America, the word is pejorative, although sometimes it is used by expatriates to refer to themselves.
- Southern South America: In this region a gringo is a person from North America, and the term is less derogatory than in northern Latin America.[citation needed]
- In Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, the word most often just means generally a foreigner (when used as a noun) or foreign (as an adjective); it may refer more specifically to the typical foreigner that visits the country as a tourist, being very light-skinned and/or speaking a foreign language. In Argentina, a country of large European immigration, all European immigrants other than Spaniards, particularly Italians, are colloquially called gringos. It is most often not pejorative and may even carry positive connotations, especially when used as an adjective. It is often used as an endearing nickname for any fair-skinned or fair-haired person of whatever origin.
[edit] Other uses
In the context of Mexican cuisine, a gringa is a flour tortilla taco of spiced pork (carne al pastor) with cheese (mostly Manchego, Chihuahua or oaxaca cheese). The combination is heated on the comal until piping hot and then served with a choice of salsa. The flour tortilla is white, with brown spots, similar to white skin with freckles.
In the 1950s in Mexico, the 50 pesos bill was called "ojo de gringa" ("Gringa's eye") because it was blue.
[edit] Etymology
The Spanish etymologist Joan Corominas states that gringo is derived from griego[1] (Spanish for "Greek"), the proverbial name 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".
[edit] False etymologies
A recurring false etymology for the derivation of gringo states that it originated during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. It has been claimed that Gringo comes from "green coat" and was used in reference to the American soldiers and the green color of their uniforms. Yet another story, from Mexico, holds that Mexicans with knowledge of the English language used to write "greens go home" on street walls referring to the color of the uniforms of the invading army; subsequently, it became a common habitual action for the rest of the population to yell "green go" whenever U.S. soldiers passed by. This is an example of an invented explanation, because gringo was used in Spanish long before the war and during the Mexican-American War. Additionally, the U.S. Army did not use green uniforms at the time, but blue ones. [2]
Another legend maintains that one of two songs – either "Green Grow the Lilacs" or "Green Grow the Rushes, O" – was popular at the time and that Mexicans heard the invading U.S. troops singing "Green grow..." and contracted this into gringo.
Another version, heard in Brazil, refers to the United States Army base near Natal, Brazil during World War II. The American soldiers, wearing green uniforms, would be commanded "green, go!" by their sergeants during training.
The story of "Green Coat" can also be heard in most other Latin American countries, with numerous variations. Some stories have the term originating as recently as the Vietnam war. Other stories attribute the term to other conflicts, all of which occurred too late in history to account for the earliest usages of the word.
Yet another version, also heard in Brazil, claims that when the British were building the railroads in Brazil in the beginning of the century, they would instruct the locals on how traffic lights worked: Red, Stop. Green, Go. The British were thereafter known as "gringo".
In the Dominican Republic it is said that the term was a mispronunciation of the words green gold, referring to the green color of USA currency, as well as the corruption of the exclamation: "green go!", said to have voiced local opposition within the volatile context of both U.S. military interventions to the Island.
[edit] See also
[edit] Quotation
- "To be a Gringo in Mexico – ah, that is euthanasia!" — Ambrose Bierce
[edit] References
- ^ Griego at Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, Vol. III, Joan Corominas, José A. Pascual, Editorial Gredos, Madrid, 1989, ISBN 84-249-1365-5
[edit] External links
- "In Brazil, Nor All Gringos Are Equal", by Thaddeus Blanchette; an article on the meaning of 'gringo' in Brazil.
