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gringo - 5 dictionary results

grin⋅go

[gring-goh]

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–noun, plural -gos. Usually Disparaging.

(in Latin America or Spain) a foreigner, esp. one of U.S. or British descent.

Origin:
1840–50, Americanism; < Sp: foreign language, foreigner, esp. English-speaking (pejorative); prob. alter. of griego Greek. The belief that word is from the song “Green Grow the Lilacs,” popular during U.S.-Mexican War, is without substance

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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grin·go (grĭng'gō)

n. pl. grin·gos Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.

[Spanish, foreign, foreign language, gibberish, probably alteration of griego, Greek, from Latin Graecus; see Greek.]

Word History: In Latin America the word gringo is an offensive term for a foreigner, particularly an American or English person. But the word existed in Spanish before this particular sense came into being. In fact, gringo may be an alteration of the word griego, the Spanish development of Latin Graecus, "Greek." Griego first meant "Greek, Grecian," as an adjective and "Greek, Greek language," as a noun. The saying "It's Greek to me" exists in Spanish, as it does in English, and helps us understand why griego came to mean "unintelligible language" and perhaps, by further extension of this idea, "stranger, that is, one who speaks a foreign language." The altered form gringo lost touch with Greek but has the senses "unintelligible language," "foreigner, especially an English person," and in Latin America, "North American or Britisher." Its first recorded English use (1849) is in John Woodhouse Audubon's Western Journal: "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called 'Gringoes.'"

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Gringo

Grin"go\, n. [Amer. Sp., fr. Sp. gringo gibberish; cf. griego Greek, F. grigou wretch.] Among Spanish Americans, a foreigner, esp. an Englishman or American; -- often used as a term of reproach.

gringo

In Latin America, a foreigner, especially a North American or Englishman; usually a term of contempt.

gringo

1849, from Mex.Sp. gringo, contemptuous word for "foreigner," from Sp. gringo "foreign, unintelligible talk, gibberish," perhaps ult. from griego "Greek." The "Diccionario Castellano" (1787) says gringo was used in Malaga for "anyone who spoke Spanish badly," and in Madrid for "the Irish."

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