Gringo Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a term in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, with various related meanings, and often misunderstood by English speakers.Original meaning: Etymologically, gringo comes from griego ("Greek"), since Greek was the proverbial example of not understandable language. It was applied to speakers of foreign languages, especially the English language, by the eighteenth century. It was later extended to white-skinned people even if Spanish-speaking, and can sometimes even mean just blond.
South America and Spain: In most parts of these countries gringo means white-skinned person speaking a non-Romance language. In Argentina, it generally refers to an immigrant. However, influenced by the Mexican meaning, many people now apply this term only to people from the United States. Normally it is not derogatory.
Mexico and Central America: In these countries the word normally means specifically a US citizen, regardless of language spoken or ethnic origin. It is often derogatory.
Brazil: after learning the word from its Spanish-speaking neighbors, the Portuguese meaning of the word has kept closer to its original sense.
A recurring fake etymology for the derivation of the word states that it originated during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. The 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 US troops singing "Green grow..." and contracted this into gringo. Another version, heard in Brazil, refers to the USAF airbase near Natal during World War II. The soldiers, wearing their green uniforms, would be told "green, go!" by their sergeants during training. Yet another story, from Mexico, holds that Mexicans with knowledge of the English language used to write "greens go home" on street walls refering of course 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 US soldiers passed by. While the legends are certainly imaginative attempts to explain the current Mexican meaning of the word, they do nothing to address the fact that gringo was attested in Spanish with a different meaning long before either incident.
Most English language speakers have met the word in Western films.
Compare with Yankee.
The story of "Green Go" can also be heard in most other Latin-American countries, with a lot of variation. Some say it happened during the Vietnam war, others say it was during the Mexican-American war; if you name any war that America has been involved in, you can probably find someone who believes that is where the term gringo originated.