Why do Mexicans call Americans Gringo?

Question

Maybe like the saying..Its all greek to me...

Answer 1

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.’”

Answer 2

When the USA was at war with Mexico in the 19th century, the americans had green coats. So, the mexicans said «Green go». Which pronounced by mexicans sounded Gringo. An american woman told me that when I was in Mexico. I don't know if it is true.

Answer 3

I'm a mexican, the origin of the word "gringo" comes from the uniform that the american soldiers use to wear apparently it was some kind of green coat, now, must mexicans do not speak english, and the little that they know they mispronounce from Green coat to gringo
makes sense to me, plus that is the story of the word that i have heard since i was a child.


mickyrisk, the frase "greek to me" dosen't exist in spanish, we say "esta en chino" somenthing like "is in chinnesse" .

Answer 4

Gringo is from the north americans who made a song about going to the green fields in Mexico, they would sing a song called Green Grow.
Chor.—Green grow the rashes, O;
Green grow the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent amang the lasses, O.

THERE’S nought but care on ev’ry han’, 5
In ev’ry hour that passes, O:
What signifies the life o’ man,
An’ ’twere na for the lasses, O.
Green grow, &c.
made in 1909, the story about the militaries green coats is false

Answer 5

I think some of the other answers might be right, however, I had heard that "Gringo" was an old slang word in Spanish that meant "white" or "pale" and was used by Mexicans to refer to people who had paler coloured skin.

Answer 6

You need to listen to mickeyrsk and 1/2 pint. Obviously they have researched this answer. Those of you with your story about green coats and green fields are showing your ignorance. Spanish for the color green is" Verde". Why would even the most uneducated Hispanic use a word for green that sounds like a "B" movie Spanish accent interpreted by English speaking people?

Answer 7

Because C*** Sucker is offensive

Answer 8

Probably because they have no imagination.

Answer 9

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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).
Look up gringo in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Political graffiti in León, 1980.
It reads "If the Gringos intervene, the militias will stop them!!!"Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a term in the Spanish and Portuguese languages used to refer to native English speakers (from the United States in particular, but also from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and elsewhere as well). The American Heritage Dictionary classifies the term as offensive slang [1], though some who use it do not consider it pejorative.

In informal Spanish speech, "gringo" offers a convenient shorthand to refer to a person from the U.S., since the term "American" is used to refer to anyone from the entire American continent (North, Central and South), while the more specific term "estadounidense" ("United Statian") is cumbersome to pronounce.

"Gringo" is used to refer to any native English speaker (regardless of race), though it is most frequently used with respect to white westeners (in particular those from the United States).

The term does lend itself to derogatory, paternalistic or endearing connotations, depending on the context and the intent of the user. In contrast, the term "yanqui" ("Yankee") is used almost exclusively in a derogatory way, to refer to any U.S. citizen, even those from the American South.

In some regions of Argentina, Paraguay and nearby areas, "Gringo" is used to refer to anyone of blonde hair and/or light skin color, regardless of their origin. It is not a pejorative term. It is also used (jokingly) as a nickname for people who are dark skinned. Another word for gringo is Polaco (Polish).

Contents [hide]
1 Meaning
2 Other uses
3 Etymology
3.1 Popular etymologies
4 See also
5 Quotation
6 References



[edit]
Meaning
Mexico, Central America, and northern South America: In these areas the word normally means specifically a U.S. citizen, regardless of language spoken or ethnic origin. Its use is sometimes derogatory.[citation needed] However, in Mexico the term "gabacho" is much more commonly used than "gringo" when referring to such a person. 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.
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.
The Anglosphere: "Hispanic" (i.e., variously Spanish-speaking) migrants to the USA occasionally use the term as a synonym of anglo. In the United States, the term can provoke reactions incommensurate with its largely innocuous Spanish-language sense.[citation needed] Unless it is used together with an expletive, the word is not considered either insulting or racist by native Spanish speakers.
[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 1950's 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]
Popular etymologies
A recurring fake 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 Air Force 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 semaphores 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. This theory has yet to be proven.

[edit]
See also
Alternative words for American
Use of the word American
Anglo
List of ethnic slurs
List of words meaning outsider, foreigner or "not one of us"
[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
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo"
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | Ethnic slurs | Mexican Spanish | Mexican-American history | Spanish terms

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