Masculine

gringo

Meaning

Concepts

(Latin-America, derogatory, masculine, sometimes) a fair-skinned foreigner whose native language is not Spanish
(Latin-America, derogatory, masculine, sometimes) an American (a person from the United States), especially a white American.

Frequency

Hyphenated as

grin‧go

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɡɾinɡo/

Possibly from griego (“Greek”), particularly from the phrase hablar en griego (“to speak Greek”), with a similar connotation to the English phrase it's all Greek to me. Possibly influenced by peregrino (“pilgrim”). Or else due to the ubiquity of the song Green Grow the Lilacs among the men who settled the interior of the American continent.