gringo

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
One of the most complex aspects of third world travel for a gringo is navigating human relationships across a great divide of privilege.

View all »
Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.
  2. Word History
    In Latin America the word gringo is an offensive term for a foreigner, particularly an American or English person. But the word existed in Spanish before this particular sense came into being. In fact, gringo may be an alteration of the word griego, the Spanish development of Latin Graecus, "Greek.” Griego first meant "Greek, Grecian,” as an adjective and "Greek, Greek language,” as a noun. The saying "It's Greek to me” exists in Spanish, as it does in English, and helps us understand why griego came to mean "unintelligible language” and perhaps, by further extension of this idea, "stranger, that is, one who speaks a foreign language.” The altered form gringo lost touch with Greek but has the senses "unintelligible language,” "foreigner, especially an English person,” and in Latin America, "North American or Britisher.” Its first recorded English use (1849) is in John Woodhouse Audubon's Western Journal: "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called 'Gringoes.'”

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • The most likely source of our slang meaning of gringo is the Spanish word gringo itself, which means "foreigner" or "unintelligible gibberish." —  The Word Detective
  • One of the most complex aspects of third world travel for a gringo is navigating human relationships across a great divide of privilege. —  MRZine.org
  • And I'm sure you're right, most brazilians here won't miss the audacity of a "gringo" speaking out about the innumerous injustices and predjudices that exist in Brazil, particularly the northeast. —  Home
  • Maybe something a little dirty, even, or with a subtle anti-gringo inside joke? —  Village Voice - The most recent 10 stories
  • "Need more tortillas, shout hey gringo, and we'll keep em comin", the menu instructs. —  Mail & Guardian Online
More examples »
 

Tags

gringo hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 80 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Spanish, foreign, foreign language, gibberish, probably alteration of griego, Greek, from Latin Graecus; see Greek.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Spanish, gibberish; prob. a pop. variant of Griego, Greek.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈgrɪŋgoʊ/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a year.

Recently looked up

mountaineer · recent · Apace · enumerate · groundbreaking

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

its not like im ugly people tell me im pretty · be careful! the razor is razor-sharp! · minty-fresh death threat · please stop sucking the monkeybread · beauregard