英语词汇gringo的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

gringo. Many scholars trace this disparaging term for an American to the Spanish gringo, “gibberish,” which is a corrup- tion of the Spanish word Griego, “a Greek.” Gringo, by this theory, would be related to the old saying “It’s all Greek to me,” indicat- ing that the Yankees were strange and unfamiliar in their ways to the Mexicans who so named them. But we haven’t exhausted all the conjectures by any means. Another etymologist boldly claims “green coat” as the base for gringo, and a second theory says that the first two words of the Robert Burns lyric “Green grow the rashes O,” a song sung by American soldiers in the Mexican War, is the origin of the contemptuous word—somehow one can’t im- agine battle-hardened veterans riding along singing: “Green grow the rashes O/ The happiest hours that ere I spent/ Were spent among the lasses O!” If the “gibberish” theory is to be chal- lenged, the most likely contender is Major Samuel Ringgold, a brilliant strategist dreaded by the Mexicans during the Mexican War until he was killed at the Battle of Palo Alto in 1846. Ring- gold’s name, pronounced with a trilled r and without the last two letters as it normally would be by a Mexican, might yet prove the correct source for the word.

词汇	gringo
词源	gringo. Many scholars trace this disparaging term for an American to the Spanish gringo, “gibberish,” which is a corrup- tion of the Spanish word Griego, “a Greek.” Gringo, by this theory, would be related to the old saying “It’s all Greek to me,” indicat- ing that the Yankees were strange and unfamiliar in their ways to the Mexicans who so named them. But we haven’t exhausted all the conjectures by any means. Another etymologist boldly claims “green coat” as the base for gringo, and a second theory says that the first two words of the Robert Burns lyric “Green grow the rashes O,” a song sung by American soldiers in the Mexican War, is the origin of the contemptuous word—somehow one can’t im- agine battle-hardened veterans riding along singing: “Green grow the rashes O/ The happiest hours that ere I spent/ Were spent among the lasses O!” If the “gibberish” theory is to be chal- lenged, the most likely contender is Major Samuel Ringgold, a brilliant strategist dreaded by the Mexicans during the Mexican War until he was killed at the Battle of Palo Alto in 1846. Ring- gold’s name, pronounced with a trilled r and without the last two letters as it normally would be by a Mexican, might yet prove the correct source for the word.
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