| Theodore Ts'o 2004-09-07, 3:36 am |
| On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 08:41:42PM -0600, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> In Mexico, it is regular to call someone from USA 'americano', but it
> does raise eyebrows often. 'gringo' is much more used, although it is
> perceived as somewhat denigrant (the tale says it means 'green go',
> telling the US soldiers [dressed in green] to go back home).
The story that I've heard is that the term was coined during the
U.S. / Mexican war (where the U.S. essentially stole a large part of
Texas from Mexico at gun-point --- personally, as far as I'm
concerned, you can have Texas back as long as you take George Bush
with it :-), the American soldiers were often heard to sing the song,
"Green Grow the Rushes Oh" as they marched through Mexican territory,
and that's where the term "Gringo" came from.
I doubt anyone can prove with 100% certainty where the word came from.
- Ted
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