Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words Words for furreners
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
AHD indicates "gringo" was an earlier Spanish word, originally meaning "Greek" but then extended to mean any foreigner, much in the sense of "It's all Greek to me", or "one foreigner is the same as any other." (That proverb is clearly older.)
See http://www.snopes2.com/language/stories/gringo.htm for the same view -- but suggesting that the Spanish-American War, 1846-1848, may have brought this word from Spanish into English.
Edit: Apparently there has been some controversey over the "green grow" and "greek" theories. Various sources are summarized, with links, at:
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20000821.html
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,372Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 286 guests, and 1 robot. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 25
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,561tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,919Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org