[net.nlang] Origin of gringo

mulbery@mot.UUCP (Bill Mulberry) (11/20/85)

     Another theory about the origin of the word "gringo" is that
it is a concatenation of "green" and "go".  This is the result of
the pidgeon(?) english spoken by the Mexicans who lived near the
border of Texas and Mexico at the time of the Mexican War.  The
American soldiers wore green and the Mexicans wanted them to go
back home.  During the fighting, the Mexicans supossed to have
shouted "gringo" to tell the greens to go back home.
     But this is also a theory and hasn't been substantiated.

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Bill Mulberry @ Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ  U.S.A.
UUCP:  {seismo!terak, trwrb!flkvax, utzoo!mnetor, ihnp4!btlunix}!mot!mulbery
ARPA:  oakhill!mot!mulbery@ut-sally.ARPA             AT&T:  602-438-3039
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