"male Latin-American inhabitant of the United States" (fem. Latina), 1946, American English, from American Spanish, a shortening of Latinoamericano "Latin-American" (see Latin America). As an adjective, attested from 1974.
Entries linking to latino
Latin America
1862; see Latin (adj.). The notion is the nations whose languages descend from Latin. Related: Latin American (adj.), 1871.
Latino-
prefix in use from 1939 as a combining form of Latin, from ablative of Latin latinus. By 1958 as a combining form from Latino.