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Gringo (, , ) (masculine) or gringa (feminine) is a term in Spanish language and Portuguese for a foreigner. In Spanish, the term usually refers to English-speaking Anglo-Americans. There are differences in meaning depending on region and country. The term can be considered derogatory,English dictionaries:
Spanish dictionaries:
Portuguese dictionaries:
but is often used in a neutral or friendly way.
The word derives from the term used by the Spaniards for a Greek person: griego. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use in English comes from John Woodhouse Audubon's Western Journal of 1849–1850, "Gringo" From the Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 28 November 2008. in which Audubon reports that his party was hooted and shouted at and called "Gringoes" while passing through the town of Cerro Gordo, Veracruz.Audubon, John W. (1906). Audubon's Western Journal 1849–1850, p. 100. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company.
The most likely theory is that it originates from griego ('Greek'), used in the same way as the English phrase "it's Greek to me". Spanish is known to have used Greek as a stand-in for incomprehensibility, though now less common, such as in the phrase hablar en griego (lit. 'to speak Greek'). The 1817 Nuevo diccionario francés-español, for example, gives gringo and griego as synonyms in this context:
This derivation requires two steps: griego > grigo, and grigo > gringo. Corominas notes that while the first change is common in Spanish (e.g. to ), there is no perfect analogy for the second, save in Old French ( Gregoire to Grigoire to Gringoire). Griego at Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana, Vol. II, pag. 784 (25), Joan Corominas, Francke Verlag, Berna, 1954, However, there are other Spanish words whose colloquial form contains an epenthesis n, such as and ('chubby'), and and ('South Vietnam'). It is also possible that the final form was influenced by the word jeringonza, a game like Pig Latin also used to mean "gibberish".
Alternatively, it has been suggested that gringo could derive from the Caló language, the language of the Gitanos, as a variant of the hypothetical * peregringo, 'peregrine', 'wayfarer', 'stranger'.Irving L. Allen, The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture, 1983, , p. 129
As the word has no connection to physical appearance in Brazil, Black people or African American foreigners are also called gringos. Popularly used terms for fair-skinned and blond people are generally based in specific nationalities, like "alemão" (i.e., Germans), "russo" (Russian) or, in some regions, "polaco" (Polack) and "galego" (Galician people) which are used for both Brazilians and foreigners with such characteristics, regardless of national or ethnic origins.
Sometimes, it is used for people from some English-speaking countries, like Great Britain or Canada.
The term is mentioned in its meaning of "incomprehensible language" from the 18th century (1789) to the 1830s, but also to indicate foreign troops, at first, coming from Spain in the second half of the 18th century. A text published in Mexico, but written by a Spaniard, denigrates a Mexican from Sonora for speaking "gringo", in reference to the indigenous language. After the Mexican–American War, gringo began to be used for citizens from that country, with expressions such as "American gringo" or simply gringo, attested as in popular use in Tepetitlán in 1849. Since then, gringo became a way to designate United States citizens exclusively.
The term is deeply rooted in Mexican culture and art; for example, in the novel The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes or in the songs Frijolero by Molotov and Somos Más Americanos by Los Tigres del Norte.
Alicia Shepard stated that there is a disagreement between Hispanics and non-Hispanics about its offensiveness. She argued that even though in Spanish it is defined as a neutral term and not as an insult, in English it can be interpreted as such, and should be avoided.
Gustavo Arellano said that the term is "technically a slur", but "its power to offend nowadays is minimal". He compared the ban on the term as an attempt to cancel aspects of Mexican culture.
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