GRINGOS, FALSE ETYMOLOGY, AND EPITHETS
GRINGOS, FALSE ETYMOLOGY, AND EPITHETS Quoting from memory, in one of his Essays with a Purpose (1954) Salvador de Madariaga—Galician, Oxford professor—mocks popular etymologists who believe outrage comes from out + rage , rather than from French outrage (Spanish ultraje ). The example is apt, because the world is crowded with linguistic amateurs: backyard linguists, Sunday etymologists, improvised translators, makeshift grammarians—of every language and persuasion. I may well be one of them. Take gringo . According to folk etymology, the word arose during the Mexican–American War, when Mexican soldiers supposedly misheard American troops singing “Green Grow the Lilacs.” Charming—and false. Another chestnut derives gringo from greenhorn . Also wrong. Gringo is Spanish. It is a variant of griego (“Greek”), long used to denote incomprehensible speech (“It’s Greek to me”). It entered the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española in 1869 with the def...