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Three Gringos in Central America and Venezuela, 1896 book by Richard Harding Davis (poster by Edward Penfield)

Gringo (Spanish: [ˈgɾiŋgo], Portuguese: [ˈgɾĩgu]) is a slang Spanish and Portuguese word used in Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, to denote foreigners, often from the United States. The term can be applied to someone who is actually a foreigner, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into foreign (particularly US) society and culture. While in Spanish it simply identifies a foreigner, without any negative connotation,^[1] in English the word is often considered offensive or disparaging.^[2]

The word was used in Spain - although the word is nowadays rarely heard there - long before it crossed the Atlantic to denote foreign, non-native speakers of Spanish.^[3]

Etymology[link]

The word gringo, was first recorded in the Diccionario castellano con las voces de Ciencias y Artes y sus correspondientes en las 3 lenguas francesa, latina e italiana (Castilian Dictionary including the Words of the Sciences and the Arts, and their Correspondents in 3 Languages: the French, the Latin, and the Italian, 1786), by Terreros y Pando, wherein it is defined as:

Gringos llaman en Málaga a los extranjeros que tienen cierta especie de acento, que los priva de una locución fácil y natural Castellana; y en Madrid dan el mismo nombre con particularidad a los irlandeses.

Gringos is what, in Malaga, they call foreigners who have a certain type of accent that prevents them from speaking Castilian easily and naturally; and in Madrid they give the same name, in particular, to the Irish.^[4]

The etymologic consensus is that gringo is a variant of griego ‘Greek’ speech (cf. Greek to me); yet the contrary also is proposed, that griego > gringo is phonetically unlikely, because the derivation requires two steps: (i) griego > grigo, and (ii) grigo > gringo, and, instead, might derive from Caló, the language of the Romani people of Spain, as a variant of (pere)gringo ‘peregrine’, ‘wayfarer’, and ‘stranger’.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

The gringo entry in the Nuevo diccionario francés-español (New French–Spanish Dictionary, 1817), by Antonio de Capmany, records: ^[10]

. . . hablar en griego, en guirigay, en gringo.^[11]

. . . to speak in Greek, in gibberish, in gringo.

Gringo, griego: aplícase a lo que se dice o escribe sin entenderse.^[12]

Gringo, Greek : applies to what is said or written without understanding it.

Moreover, besides “Hablar en gringo”, Spanish also contains the analogous phrase “hablar en chino (To speak in Chinese)”, when referring to someone whose language is difficult understand, thereby re-enforcing the notion that alluding to the languages of other nations is a cliché. Furthermore, in the 1840s, Johann Jakob von Tschudi said that gringo was common Peruvian Spanish usage in Lima:

Gringo is a nickname applied to Europeans. It is probably derived from griego (Greek). The Germans say of anything incomprehensible, “That sounds like Spanish”, — and, in like manner, the Spaniards say of anything they do not understand, “That is Greek”. ^[13]

In English[link]

"Gringo" has been in use in the English language since the 19th century.^[14] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the term in an English source is in John W. Audubon's Western Journal of 1849;^[14] Audubon recalls that he and his associates were derided and called "Gringoes" while passing through the town of Cerro Gordo, Veracruz.^[15]

Folk etymologies[link]

One common folk etymology purports that gringo comes from a tune Green Grow the Lilacs sung around campfires by invading Anglo-Americans, not only English but Irish and German. When the Mexican-American War began in 1846, from a few to several hundred recently immigrated Irish, German, Matorian and other Catholic Americans who were sent by the U.S. government to fight against Mexico came to question why they were fighting against a Catholic country for a Protestant one, combined with resentment over their treatment by their Anglo-Protestant officers, and deserted to join forces with Mexico. Led by Captain Jon Riley of County Galway, they called themselves St. Patrick's Battalion (in Spanish, Batallón de San Patricio).^[16] Green was the color of the Irish, who also first used the Gaelic slogan Erin go Bragh (Ireland forever), but more importantly the soldiers frequently sang "Green Grow the Rushes, Oh!," an old folk song (and most likely not the song based on the similarly-titled Robert Burns poem, "Green Grow the Rashes"),^[17] or an earlier Scottish tune Green Grows the Laurel, which they called Green Grow the Lilacs,^[18] which traces back to a song composed in the early 16th century by English king Henry VIII called Green Grows the Holly.^[19]

Rafael Abal considers the origin of gringo as "green horn", an apprentice jeweller in Europe. In the United States, men from the west coast are called "westman", while people from the east coast are called "green horns". Spanish speakers called them "gringo".

All these folk etymologies place the origin of the word gringo in the 19th century. This is a problem because the word has been documented from the 18th century, including the 1786 Diccionario castellano con las voces de Ciencias y Artes y sus correspondientes en las 3 lenguas francesa, latina e italiana by Esteban de Terreros y Pando, and South American literature. In Esteban Echeverría's El matadero (1840), and in José Hernández's Martín Fierro (1872, 1879), the word gringo refers to persons from England.

Brazil and Portugal[link]

In Brazilian and Portuguese popular culture, someone unintelligible is traditionally said to speak Greek.^[20]

Absorption from Spanish is also reflected in that the word usage is not naturally widespread and only generally in regions exposed to tourism like Rio de Janeiro. There, the word means basically any foreigner, North American, European or even Latin American. Generally it applies more to any English-speaking person, not necessarily based on race or skin color but on attitude and clothing. The more popularly-used terms for fair-skinned and blond people would be "alemão" (i.e., German), "russo" (Russian) or "galego" (Galician).

The opposite of alemão/russo/galego among white people in Brazil is branco moreno, or white people of dark hair or darker complexions. Moreno is actually the opposite of the most formal term for people of fair complexion (including most East Asians and many Levantine Arabs, among others Middle Easterners and other ethnicities of light skin), pálido (IPA: [ˈpalidu], Portuguese: pale).

Moreno white people includes most Brazilians of pure or mostly European, Rromani, or Levantine descent. It also includes mixed-race people perceived as phenotypically closer to Caucasians than to Pardos—caboclos (Pardos, or Brown people. The majority of Brazilians are of some Amerindian descent, and some may have more Amerindian features than many people labeled as mestizo in nearby nations—since it actually describes strictly non-white people (and not those somewhere in-between). This broader definition of white people also includes light-skinned mulattoes of loosely coiled or straight hair and generally European features. Moreno can describe people of all races and ethnicities in Brazil, but most often refers to White Brazilians and Pardos. It is not politically correct to refer to an Afro-Brazilian by this term (because some may interpreted blackness being a minor deniable element of the person's characteristics—the stigma of being Black or partly Black in Brazil caused the phenomena of racially promoting: educated or affluent Afro-Brazilian historically "elevated" as Pardos, or very colloquially, morenos, and Pardos being seen as white people.

The most pejorative terms for white people in Brazil, both for locals and foreigners, even used by brancos morenos against fair-skinned White Brazilians, are branquelo (IPA: [bɾɐ̃ˈkɛlu], literally Portuguese: whitey, or also honky) and the even more disparaging leite azedo (IPA: [ˌlejtʃ(j) aˈzedu], Portuguese: rancid milk, in reference to the combination of an unusual light complexion, almost white as the milk, and the negative stereotype of the bad smell in Westerners — in most of Brazil, including White-majority states of Centro-Sul such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the normative social habit is to take at least one bath per day year-round, and Westerners are said to generally be not used to this — still the term is so common that in some regions it does not carry more the same negative connotation it carried in the past, although without losing its disparaging meaning). Gringo, on the other hand, is almost absent of pejorative connotation outside politically nationalist circles.

In Portugal the word is seldom used and so is "Ianque" (Portuguese spelling of Yank). It is never used in a formal context. It specifically describes someone from the USA (as does "Ianque"), and is not related to any particular physical or racial features.^[21]

Other uses[link]

In Mexican cuisine, a gringa is a flour tortilla with al pastor meat with cheese, heated on the comal and then served with a salsa de chilli (chilli sauce). It is thought that the dish was born when an American citizen living in México City went to the same taco place and always ordered a pastor taco with cheese. The waiters started calling this dish "taco de la gringa."

In the 1950s, the blue fifty Mexican peso bill was called an ojo de gringa ("gringa's eye").^[22] In Brazilian and Portuguese popular culture, someone unintelligible is traditionally said to speak Italian.[20]

Meanings[link]

A woman reads the Gringo Gazette in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico

For most Latin Americans^{[citation needed]} the word has only very mild pejorative connotations, or none at all. Typically, the word is simply used to describe someone from the US. The other three options would be either "Estadounidense" (Unitedstatesan), which is unwieldy, "Americano," which many Latin Americans begrudge, since all inhabitants of the Americas are Americans, or Yanqui (Yankee). However, there is variation between individual Latin-American countries in how the word gringo is used:

• In Mexico, El Salvador, and Venezuela, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, the term applies to U.S. citizens, and is widely accepted as a colloquial demonym. Depending on the context, it may or may not be pejorative.
• In Puerto Rico, the term refers to U.S. citizens from the U.S. mainland.
• In Cuba the term Yuma is also used with the same meaning.
• In Honduras, the term is used to refer to any English-speakers, but mainly people from the United States.
• In the Dominican Republic the term is also used to refer to non-free-range store-bought chicken (pollo gringo).
• In Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, the term is applied to Italian settlers and their descendants).
• In some places^[which?] the term may be used to refer to any foreigner who does not speak Spanish (or, in Brazil, Portuguese) as a native language.
• In Ecuador the term can be used to refer to foreigners from any country (mainly US or European), especially light-skinned blond-haired people.^{[citation needed]}
• In Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, and Peru the word refers to light-skinned, blonde haired people, whether local or foreign.^{[citation needed]} There may or may not be a pejorative connotation depending on the context of the sentence. For instance ¨La Gringa¨ is the nickname for Sofia Mulanovich a blonde Peruvian surfer.
• In Venezuela the term "Musiú" (Moo-see-oo') is applied to European foreigners, a corruption of the French "Monsieur."

See also[link]

Look up gringo or right in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Anglo
• Bolillo
• Bule
• Canuck
• Cracker
• Farang
• Gabacho
• Gaijin
• Goy
• Gringo Trail
• Güero (disambiguation) (Huero)
• Guiri
• Gweilo
• Honky
• List of terms for white people in non-Western cultures
• Moskal
• Old Gringo
• Pakeha
• Pindos
• Pocho
• Use of the word American
• Yankee
• Mat Salleh

References[link]

Dejan Petković

Personal information
Full name	Dejan Petković
Date of birth	(1972-09-10) 10 September 1972 (age 39)
Place of birth	Majdanpek, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Attacking midfielder
Youth career
1987	FK Majdanpek
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1988–1992	Radnički Niš	53	(34)
1992–1995	Red Star Belgrade	132	(38)
1995–1997	Real Madrid	5	(0)
1996	→ Sevilla (loan)	8	(1)
1997	→ Racing Santander (loan)	8	(1)
1997–1999	Vitória	29	(16)
1999–2000	Venezia	13	(1)
2000–2001	Flamengo	44	(18)
2002–2003	Vasco da Gama	19	(2)
2003	Shanghai Shenhua	22	(7)
2004	Vasco da Gama	36	(18)
2004–2005	Al-Ittihad	0	(0)
2005–2006	Fluminense	39	(11)
2007	Goiás	2	(0)
2007	Santos	21	(1)
2008	Atlético Mineiro	27	(4)
2009–2011	Flamengo	53	(13)
National team‡
1995–1999	FR Yugoslavia	7	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of June 5, 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of June 5, 2011

Dejan Petković (Serbian Cyrillic: Дејан Петковић, pronounced [dɛ̂jan pɛ̂tkɔv̞it͡ɕ]) (born 10 September 1972 in Majdanpek, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a retired Serbian football player. In his native country he's widely known under the nickname Rambo while in Brazil he often goes by Pet. He has played seven times for the FR Yugoslav national team, having scored one goal.

Early life[link]

Born to father Dobrivoje (traffic technician from Niš) and mother Milena (construction technician from Petrovac na Mlavi) who met in the small mining town of Majdanpek where they both arrived in search of work, young Dejan immediately took to football.^[1]

Early career in Serbia[link]

Radnički Niš[link]

His playing career started in 1988 at Radnički Niš. He became the youngest player ever to play an official match in the history of old Yugoslav First League, debuting on September 25, 1988 when he was 16 years and 15 days old, against Željezničar Sarajevo^[2] thus beating Mitar Mrkela's record by 1 day. Radnički ended up winning 4-0 that day. Petković's age record has since been broken by Slavko Perović and Danijel Aleksić. Until nowadays, Petković helps his first club,^[3] which has since then fallen on hard times.

Red Star Belgrade[link]

In July 1992, Petković was bought by Red Star Belgrade. Though not even 20 years of age yet, he arrived with a reputation as a skilled technical playmaker. Since bona fide stars such as Dejan Savićević, Darko Pančev, Vladimir Jugović, and Siniša Mihajlović left the club during the same summer, young Petković was thrown into the mix right away by new head coach Milan Živadinović, appearing in 30 league matches and scoring 5 goals in his first season in Belgrade.

He ended up staying with Red Star until December 1995 (three and a half seasons), winning two Yugoslav First League titles. His transfer to Real Madrid was principally agreed during summer 1995, but Red Star decided to hang on to him for the 1995–96 UEFA Cup where the club expected to do well after finally being allowed back on the European scene following years of sporting sanctions under UN trade embargo. However, Red Star got upset by Swiss club Neuchâtel Xamax in the preliminary round.

Spain[link]

Real Madrid[link]

In December 1995, twenty-three-year-old Petković joined the Spanish giants Real Madrid. At the time of his arrival, the club was not where it wanted to be in the league, hovering just out of the European spots in 6th and 7th place.

Playing under head coach Jorge Valdano, Rambo made his league debut on 17 December versus Celta de Vigo as a 65th minute sub for legendary club veteran Míchel as los Merengues won 1-0 at home. The Serb would see action again on 3 January at home versus Real Valladolid - Madrid was comfortably 4-1 ahead when Valdano threw Petković on for Iván Zamorano in the 61st minute. What would turn out to be Petković's last appearance of the season for the club came the following week away at lowly CP Mérida - Real let the 0-2 lead slip by conceding to goals and in the 81st minute Valdano sent Petković in for Freddy Rincón in search of a goal, but the score stayed 2-2.

Within a fortnight Petković was loaned out to Sevilla without ever getting a proper chance to showcase his skills during his one month at the Bernabeu with only three substitute appearances under his belt.

Loan to Sevilla FC[link]

Arriving to Estadio Sánchez Pizjuán in mid January 1996, Petković was once again parachuted into a club battling turmoil. Sevilla was barely above the relegation zone with head coach Juan Carlos Álvarez (already their second head coach of the season) on thin ice.

Juan Carlos gave his new Serbian acquisition his debut at home on 24 January vs Albacete as a starter. Playing upfront with Davor Šuker as strike partner, Petković had an average outing as Sevilla drew 1-1 with Castillan visitors, which cost head coach Juan Carlos his job. Four days later away at Real Sociedad, new head coach Víctor Espárrago gave Petković the starting assignment again alongside Šuker, but subbed him off for Ramón "Monchu" Suárez Del Valle early into the second half in the 53rd minute. The next week versus Racing de Santander, Petković was moved back into attacking midfileder role just behind Šuker and Monchu, however Sevilla again lost 0-1 while Petković got subbed off in the 59 minute. The following week Petković got relegated to the bench, only getting a bit part as an 89th minute sub as Sevilla improbably triumphed away at league-leaders Atletico Madrid, however the week after that he was back in the starting assignment.

Petković finished out the 1995-1996 La Liga season in Sevilla, appearing in 8 league matches (7 as a starter) and scoring 1 goal.

Return to Real Madrid[link]

During summer 1996, Petković returned from the loan spell in Sevilla. The Real squad that he returned to was radically different from the one he left six months earlier: starting with new head coach Fabio Capello over to attack-minded left back Roberto Carlos from Inter Milan, right back Christian Panucci from AC Milan, attacking midfielder Clarence Seedorf from Sampdoria right down to the all new forward line with Petković's teammate Šuker from Sevilla, and Predrag Mijatović from Valencia.