Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Among Spanish Americans, an Englishman or an Anglo-American: a term of contempt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Among Spanish Americans, a foreigner, especially an American or sometimes an Englishman; -- often used disparagingly or as a term of reproach.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang, often pejorative, Latin America A Caucasian foreigner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a Latin American (disparaging) term for foreigners (especially Americans and Englishmen)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[American Spanish, from Spanish, foreigner, especially an English-speaking foreigner, with a poor Spanish accent, possibly alteration of griego, Greek, from Latin Graecus; see Greek.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Spanish gringo, from griego ("Greek"), used for anyone who spoke an unintelligible language.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word gringo.

Examples

  • BLANC “White,” but more precisely “foreigner,” and like the term gringo in parts of Latin America, not necessarily pejorative.

    The Serpent and the Rainbow Wade Davis 1985

  • The word gringo is often said to have originated with invading American soldiers who sang the lyrics from “Green Grow the Rushes, O” in marching cadence, which the Mexicans are supposed to have adapted phonetically.

    Gringos in Paradise Barry Golson 2006

  • The word gringo is often said to have originated with invading American soldiers who sang the lyrics from “Green Grow the Rushes, O” in marching cadence, which the Mexicans are supposed to have adapted phonetically.

    Gringos in Paradise Barry Golson 2006

  • Lets be serious here, as a person who's studied in Puerto Rico I can tell you that the only thing Puerto Rican's despise more than a gringo is a black person.

    Schneider: How did Clinton win big? 2008

  • Yes the inclusion of the word 'gringo' conjures up certain…

    The Guardian World News 2011

  • While El Real maybe a miss as a restaurant, it is sad that a poster has to use the derogatory term "gringo" when refering to white people.

    chron.com Chronicle Alison Cook 2011

  • The fact that the common use of "gringo" in Zacatecas and the view among Chiapanecos that the word "gringo" is an inexcusable affront to people who might be so identified is evidence that we should all be careful indeed about using using words with which we are only marginally familiar when describing others from other cultural backgrounds.

    Page 2 2009

  • There's nothing academic about it, "gringo" is used all over the Spanish speaking world to mean a foreign-language speaker.

    I saw a Gringo begging today 2009

  • There's nothing academic about it, "gringo" is used all over the Spanish speaking world to mean a foreign-language speaker.

    I saw a Gringo begging today 2009

  • It might be mistaken identity, as the poster above me said, but among all my Mexican friends, from either here in Ajijic or from Guadalajara, a "gringo" is a person from the U.S.

    No Problem With "Gringo" 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.