Here is the copy of the Snopes link since some people are not opening it to read it.

Gringo

Claim: The word gringo came from Mexicans' overhearing American soldiers sing the song "Green Grow the Lilacs" during the Mexican-American War.

FALSE

Origins: The rather improbable saga of the origins of the word "gringo" has it that the term began during the Mexican-American War when Mexicans supposedly overheard American soldiers continually singing either "Green Grow the Lilacs" or "Green Grow the Rushes, O" (a song based upon a Robert Burns poem). Purportedly, the Spanish-speaking Mexicans thereupon began derisively referring to the Americans as "green grows" (rendered phonetically in Spanish as gringos), which soon became a pejorative Spanish-language term for "foreigners" (particularly Americans).

Other versions of this etymological legend attribute the singing to Irish Legion volunteers serving in Simon Bolivar's army during Venezuela's war for independence from Spain in the early "cowboys in south Texas," or American troops attempting to track down Pancho Villa in Mexico in

All of these charming explanations have chronology working against them. Although the first recorded use of "gringo" in English dates from 1849 (when John Woodhouse Audubon, the son of the famous nature artist, wrote that "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called 'Gringoes'"), the word was

ri?ts=1fHJpZD1kYWIyOThjZS00OGZhLTQyZTMtOTJiYy1iZTU1YjdlZGNiYmR8cnQ9MTQxMTM5NDYxNHxhdWlkPTU1MDkxMnxhdW09RE1JRC5XRUJ8c2lkPTExODUzM3xwdWI9MTI2Njg2fHBjPVVTRHxyYWlkPWJhNGJhMjFiLTAzOTUtNDM1My1hOGYyLWE5YzQxOTFiODgzYnx1cj1WMklFaXpRRWFQ

known in Spanish well before the Mexican-American War. According to Rawson, the Diccionario Castellano of 1787 noted that in Malaga "foreigners who have a certain type of accent which keeps them from speaking Spanish easily and naturally" were referred to as gringos, and the same term was used in Madrid, particularly for the Irish.

The true origin of gringo is most likely that it came from griego, the Spanish word for "Greek." In Spanish, as in English, something difficult or impossible to understand is referred to as being Greek: We say "It's Greek to me," just as in Spanish an incomprehensible person is said to hablar en griego (i.e., "speak in Greek"). The English version of the proverb shows up in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1599), when Casca, one of the conspirators against Caesar, proclaims:

Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again; but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

The same phrase was also used (at about the same time) by another Elizabethan playwright, Thomas Dekker, but its origins are much older: it comes from the Medieval Latin proverb Graecum est; non potest legi (i.e., "It is Greek; it cannot be read").

It is certainly possible (and even likely) that the Mexican-American War precipitated the introduction of the Spanish word gringo into the English language, but the word itself antedates that conflict by at least sixty years and had nothing to do with singing soldiers, American or otherwise.

Green Grow the Lilacs

Midi File, Lyrics and Information to Green Grow the Lilacs

Replies

wryawry September 24, 2014 at 10:44pm

Did I locate the "G-spot"?
wryawry September 24, 2014 at 3:18pm

Wouldn't we gringos therefore be called, "verde-vas"?
Phyllis McNaughton September 22, 2014 at 9:05am

Here is the copy of the Snopes link since some people are not opening it to read it.

Gringo

Claim: The word gringo came from Mexicans' overhearing American soldiers sing the song "Green Grow the Lilacs" during the Mexican-American War.

FALSE

Origins: The rather improbable saga of the origins of the word "gringo" has it that the term began during the Mexican-American War when Mexicans supposedly overheard American soldiers continually singing either "Green Grow the Lilacs" or "Green Grow the Rushes, O" (a song based upon a Robert Burns poem). Purportedly, the Spanish-speaking Mexicans thereupon began derisively referring to the Americans as "green grows" (rendered phonetically in Spanish as gringos), which soon became a pejorative Spanish-language term for "foreigners" (particularly Americans).

Other versions of this etymological legend attribute the singing to Irish Legion volunteers serving in Simon Bolivar's army during Venezuela's war for independence from Spain in the early "cowboys in south Texas," or American troops attempting to track down Pancho Villa in Mexico in

All of these charming explanations have chronology working against them. Although the first recorded use of "gringo" in English dates from 1849 (when John Woodhouse Audubon, the son of the famous nature artist, wrote that "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called 'Gringoes'"), the word was

known in Spanish well before the Mexican-American War. According to Rawson, the Diccionario Castellano of 1787 noted that in Malaga "foreigners who have a certain type of accent which keeps them from speaking Spanish easily and naturally" were referred to as gringos, and the same term was used in Madrid, particularly for the Irish.

The true origin of gringo is most likely that it came from griego, the Spanish word for "Greek." In Spanish, as in English, something difficult or impossible to understand is referred to as being Greek: We say "It's Greek to me," just as in Spanish an incomprehensible person is said to hablar en griego (i.e., "speak in Greek"). The English version of the proverb shows up in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1599), when Casca, one of the conspirators against Caesar, proclaims:
Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again; but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me.
The same phrase was also used (at about the same time) by another Elizabethan playwright, Thomas Dekker, but its origins are much older: it comes from the Medieval Latin proverb Graecum est; non potest legi (i.e., "It is Greek; it cannot be read").

It is certainly possible (and even likely) that the Mexican-American War precipitated the introduction of the Spanish word gringo into the English language, but the word itself antedates that conflict by at least sixty years and had nothing to do with singing soldiers, American or otherwise.

Read more at http://snopes.com/language/stories/gringo.asp#H7w4HDBJk4y4hrgQ.99

Green Grow the Lilacs

Midi File, Lyrics and Information to Green Grow the Lilacs
- Keith Woolford > Phyllis McNaughton September 22, 2014 at 9:56am
  
  thanks Teach!
Jim Tosch September 22, 2014 at 8:22am

True story. I was told that during a war on the Mexican Border the US military could be heard in their foxholes singing Green Grow The Lilacs which was very popular at the time. For years I heard that story repeated along with the green uniform version.
Phyllis McNaughton September 21, 2014 at 12:33pm

This is interesting reading and it tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the word

"Gringo."

http://snopes.com/language/stories/gringo.asp
Bill Uhlman September 21, 2014 at 12:17pm

I have no idea if this is true, but I heard many years ago (maybe 50) that it was coined during the war between Mexico and the US (the days of the Alamo) and at the time the popular and patriotic song of the era among the Texas settlers was "green grow the lilacs" which lyrically referred to replacing the green of the Mexican flag with the red white and blue of the American flag. "Green grow" got contracted to gringo by the Mexicans. in this version the origin was political and definitely negative. I do not have a source for this story and cannot verify the accuracy. I am neither a linguist nor a historian but there seems to be some plausibility to the story..
Roger Bellido September 20, 2014 at 4:51pm

That was the original version I got for the creation of the term GRINGO.

I grew up with that version.
- Bill > Roger Bellido September 20, 2014 at 7:19pm
  
  But, it seems that Pancho Villa was using the term before the US Army wore green. I'll be interested to keep reading to find the real origin of the term.
  - Roger Bellido > Bill September 20, 2014 at 9:43pm
    
    This is interesting. Now I have my doubts about the real origin of the word Gringo.

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The Word Gringo Means GREEN GO military slang

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