"Scholars are not in agreement about the correct use and origin of this word."
"Gringo in Malaga, what they call foreigners who (have) a certain kind of accent which prevents their speaking Spanish with ease and spontaneity; in Madrid the case is the same, and for some reason, especially with respect to the Irish."
"Another instance of its early use is in Bustamante's 1841 edition of Francisco Javier Alegre's Historia de la Companis de Jesús en la Nueva España, in which he explains that the Spanish soldiers sent to Mexico in 1767 by Charles III were called gringos by the Mexican people."
Quotes from J.H. Coffman, Scottsdale, AZ in a letter to the editor in "Honduras This Week"
[scratching my head-e] Okay, so first they say it was a term used to describe people who couldn't pronounce Spanish because of their accents. Then they say it was used by the Mexicans when refering to Spanish soldiers.
I can totally see some Mexican soldiers making fun of the American soldiers, maybe even punning off Greek sexual habits, but I have to say that it seems that until the mid 1800's, gringo was not a word that was used much until the Mexicans started applying it to Americans.
