what does "gringos" mean?

Question

i dont speak spanish

but does it mean 'americans', or 'foreigners'?
is it just slang for those words?

Answer 1

It's an offensive, racist term that once meant foreigners but in this century means caucasian people. It's on par with the N word. From the dictionary: grin·go (grĭng'gō) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. grin·gos Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.

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.'"

Answer 2

"gringo" is not a derogatory term.

It's slang used to call people from other countries, usually from the US.

It does not mean "white person" either. I can call a black American person a "gringo".. only because he is from the US.

I insist, it's not an insult, it's not pejorative, no matter what some people believe and say.

Of course it depends on the intonation, you can use the word "nice" to insult someone if you use it sarcastically.

Answer 3

Green go, just for the color of their uniforms at the war i've studied that kind of stuff, and no it's not an insult unless i mean it, you know just like black, isn't an insult but it can be an attempt, there are many guys at least in Mexico wich are white and their nickname it's Gringo. anyways i don't try to insult anyone when i call him gringo it's just a word, maybe an adjective...=P

Just slang id say.

Answer 4

Here is the answer:


grin·go (grĭng'gō) Pronunciation Key
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

Answer 5

Im hispanic /latino/ not a mexican but i know of mexican culture take my word for it.

Americans means the whole continent for us, so mexicans latinos brazilians are all americans to us. We never call you americans when we talk about you , we call you north americans in spanish norteamericano or gringo.

The real meaning of gringo is a white person with blonde hair and maybe blue eyes or green eyes. It doesn't mean just white, b/c we have white people in our country. I am one and they only called me gringo when i was like 5 cuz my hair was a litle blonde now its dark.

But Gringo can be the following too:

- White European(has to be blonde) and funny accent like you cant speak spanish correctly. something like this "Me wants soda"
-North american or people from US who is white(has to be blonde too) unless we generalize all of you including ppl with dark hair white skin and dark eyes. "These gringos are ******* rich".

It is not racist, maybe it was, but now its not. If you see the movie "One day w/o mexicans". At the end of the movie, the migra caught to mexicans trying to cross the border and the mexicans thought they were fucked but the migra was happy to see em and led em in cuz all mexicans in USA dissapeared and they missed em. And the mexicans said : "Estos gringos son bien chevres". Meaning "These gringos are ******* cool". They did a generalization there, b/c there was some dark guys, again these mexicans didnt call you americans, just gringos.

We don't use that term for racism against white people. You guys took it that way, you found it offensive for some reason and now some people like "5%" of latinos use it to offend you cuz even thou it doesnt mean anything offensive they know its gonna be offensive to you cuz u dont know the real meaning.

Answer 6

What a wonderful question. Religion is, of course, the form that one's worship takes. Thus there are thousands of forms. Religion includes a system of religious beliefs and practices. The object of the religion may be false gods or the true God. Hence, there is false religion and there is true. Religion can get very fancy or remain simple. In the former case, such as it is today. In the latter case, such as it was in the Garden of Eden. What then is worship to me? How do I worship? To worship means to obey. And to obey means to worship. The two are intimately connected; indeed, they are coterminous and cannot be separated. Specifically, to obey the Sovereign Lord God Jehovah of Armies is to worship Him. I do my imperfect best in this regard. I fall on my face and get back up to try and try again. In the Garden of Eden, so long as they obeyed Jehovah, Adam and Eve were worshiping him. No temple, no Mosaic Law, no meetings. Simply leave the tree of the knowledge of good and bad alone. Simple. The minute they disobeyed, they stopped worshiping Jehovah. Same with the nation of Israel. The minute they attempted to practice a syncretistic religion they stopped worshiping Jehovah. The minute they made the golden calf, they stopped. And on and on. To worship is to obey. To obey is to worship. Hannah J Paul

Answer 7

I'm from Mexico. "Gringo" means American. It's not an insult, it just mean American. It doesn't mean White person, becuase otherwise we'd that to every Blond Mexican guy. It means American!

Answer 8

Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a term in the Spanish and Portuguese languages used in some countries of Latin America to refer to foreigners from different cultures,
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo

Answer 9

in latin american it means someone who's a foreigner. some think it means white person, or american--it does mean that but isn't limited to it. a gringo isn't necessary white or american. it's not offensive or an insult, just a description.

Answer 10

Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.