BAJACAT
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2902
Registered: 11-21-2005
Location: NATIONAL CITY, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
Oso this one is for you
I Was ask by a friend that obviously is white how come we call americans gringos. And i did'nt have a answer. So my question is where that
word is from, and whats it's origen..
[Edited on 6-17-2006 by BAJACAT]
BAJA IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO BE, FUN,DANGEROUS,INCREDIBLE, REMOTE, EXOTIC..JUST GO AND HAVE FUN.....
|
|
|
HotSchott
Nomad
Posts: 156
Registered: 9-4-2003
Location: Sandy Eggo
Member Is Offline
|
|
It is from impatient Meskins trying to get to work across the border. Every time the light turns green they yell "Green Go".
That's the way it was splained to me.
|
|
|
Oso
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2637
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
Member Is Offline
Mood: wait and see
|
|
We've been over it many times. I don't have time right now to go into all the misconceptions about uniforms and songs of the American invasion of
Mexico. Bottom line is- it's a very old Spanish term, pre-dating Columbus, that is a corruption of Griego (Greek) and refers to any foreigner who
speaks Spanish badly. I'll come back and furnish some refs to the real expert later. Gotta go now.
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
|
|
|
Oso
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2637
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
Member Is Offline
Mood: wait and see
|
|
Here ya go:
http://www.baja.net/fud/index.php?t=msg&th=4649&star...
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
|
|
|
Oso
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2637
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
Member Is Offline
Mood: wait and see
|
|
OOPS! Forgot that thread was in Spanish, here's the Gringo part translated:
(All from thaaaat board- Baja.net)
Posts: 862
Location:
On the border
IP: 198.81.26.107
From:
proxy.aol.com
Registered:
August 2003
Re: Gringos Sat, 10 April 2004 15:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
GRINGOS
By Arturo Ortega Mor?n
(Specially dedicated to my friends at Baja.Net)
Translated by Oso
Gringos. That is what, in Mexico, we call our neighbors of the North, particularly the Anglo-Saxons. We have with them, a proximity which has marked
our history and has diminished our geography. We have from this, one of the expressions with which we try to justify our frustrations as a country:
�Poor little Mexico, so far from God and so close to the gringos!�.
But, why do we call them gringos? Very widespread is the explanation that this word was born in the 19th century, during the U.S. invasion of Mexico.
Within this hypothesis there are different versions.
One says that during the Mexican-American war (1846-1848); the Northamerican soldiers who invaded Mexico sang a song called �Green Grow the
Lilacs�. Those of the North sang it so much that the Mexicans, as good as we are at making nicknames, soon used the sound �green
grow� to refer to them.
In the other version, perhaps the more popular, it is maintained that when the Northamerican soldiers invaded Mexico, they wore green uniforms. The
Mexicans, in bad English, shouted �green go home� at them, and from this came the word �gringo�.
If you believed either of these explanations was true, let me tell you that it is plainly demonstrated that they are false. The word
�gringo� is of Spanish origin and is documented since the 18th century. It appears in the � iccionario Castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes� (1787); compiled by Father Esteban de Terreros y Pando.
There it says: �Gringos: so called in Malaga, those foreigners who have a certain kind of accent, which deprives them of easy locution and
natural Castilian; and in Madrid they are called the same and for the same reason, particularly the Irish�.
If you still have doubts, the following Spanish [from Spain] text from 1840 (Before the Mexico-U.S. war); is sufficient to discard any Mexican origin:
-?Qu? entiendo yo de bodegas, y de abonar el terreno,
y si se mide el centeno por varas o por fanegas?
-?Qu? entiendo yo de elegancia, y de ese tono de aqui,
ni qu? me importan a m? los figurines de Francia?
-De la barra y la pelota yo el m?rito no distingo.
-Ni yo de ?peras en gringo, donde no cantan la jota.
[What do I know of warehouses, and fertilizing the soil.
And if wheat is measured in yards or fanegas (unit of measurement in liters or square meters)
What do I know of elegance or the way they speak here,
Nor what do I care about figurines from France?
Of the stick and the ball, I don�t distinguish the merit.
Nor of operas in gringo, where they don�t sing the jota (popular Spanish music/dance)]
The most probable, is that �gringo� is a deformation of the word �griego� [Greek]. An argument in favor of this is that
when we don�t understand something, we say indistinctly that �estaba en gringo� [it was in gringo] or �estaba en
griego� [it was in Greek]. Also, suggestive of this is the ancient Latin proverb �graecum est; non potest legi�, which means
�it�s in Greek and cannot be read�. Also a related word is �greguer?a� which means, �confused
shouting�.
One never knows the repercussions of not studying languages. If those soldiers who invaded us had been given courses in Spanish, we would never have
called them �gringos�.
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
|
|
|
BAJACAT
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2902
Registered: 11-21-2005
Location: NATIONAL CITY, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by HotSchott
It is from impatient Meskins trying to get to work across the border. Every time the light turns green they yell "Green Go".
That's the way it was splained to me. |
Thanks Hotschot
BAJA IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO BE, FUN,DANGEROUS,INCREDIBLE, REMOTE, EXOTIC..JUST GO AND HAVE FUN.....
|
|
|
BAJACAT
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2902
Registered: 11-21-2005
Location: NATIONAL CITY, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by Oso
We've been over it many times. I don't have time right now to go into all the misconceptions about uniforms and songs of the American invasion of
Mexico. Bottom line is- it's a very old Spanish term, pre-dating Columbus, that is a corruption of Griego (Greek) and refers to any foreigner who
speaks Spanish badly. I'll come back and furnish some refs to the real expert later. Gotta go now. |
Gracias OSO (thanks OSO) for looking up ,this for me, bye the way I get along with gringos
BAJA IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO BE, FUN,DANGEROUS,INCREDIBLE, REMOTE, EXOTIC..JUST GO AND HAVE FUN.....
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
