Idiomatic Indiosyncrases Quote:
Mine: I am prepared to make this concession to simple-minded gringoes in not refering to them as such, all I ask is that none refer to them as "Americans".
Reply: You are asking for people to not refer to themselves as Americans if they are from the country that all western dictionaries refer to them as such? Is this really logical/reasonable, and does it do anything but distract from the debates?
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I suspect you can't appreciate how distracting it is to find people from the US refered to as "Americans". Dictionaries compile definitions in order of priority based on most frequent meaning in accepted usage of the language they are rendering; my dictionary (OED) says American is from America (that's the first and most common meaning for the term when used by English speakers).
This is the basis for my preference for "gringo"; that I lack an adequate term for people from the US that doesn't assert I've verified their citizenship. The gringoes (all 330 million of them) favour "American", but at least as many hispanics across Latin America, plus a fair number of Spaniards, other Europeans and people around the world learned long ago in primary school of the continents and one of them is America, not a country. In Mexico, officially people from the US are "estadounidenses" (united statians) but this seems rather long and somewhat ambiguous to me, besides, it confuses since Mexicans are also this as the country's official name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos". Another discarded alternative was "norteamericanos" (North Americans) which is used in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America to refer to the people from the US -obviously Canadians and Mexicans would also be included. The preferred term in Spain for gringoes is Yankee (sometimes spelled "yanqui") however I discarded this too since people in the US distinguish as Yankees the people on the Union side in their Civil War.
Lacking a more adequate term I considered "gringo". The term apealed because it is short and suggests the cultural dimension associated with a whole life-style, attitude, a cultural identity of sorts, something equally implicit as when one refers to Mexican or French things (this citizenship dimension we want to suggest but not assert in a national designator). But before opting for its use I considered the possibility it could cause offense. My research disclosed the term "gringo" is said to derive from 2 possible folk sources; either it was a song sung by pioneers as they crossed the prairies "...green groes the grass..." and overhead by Mexican llaneros as they roamed those prairies, or it refers to the popular demand raised by Veracruzans upon US naval capture of the city ("green go!") as in US leave (the US military forces wore green uniforms).
Given the 2 possible sources for the term, with only one of them being a possible cause for offense (some from the US may interpret it as suggesting they are unwelcome) I concluded the only offended would be those who read into the term a Mexican admonishment for their interventions. Since I believe those admonishments should be taken to heart, that the people from the US ought to be apologetic for the abuses inflicted then, before and since to Mexico, it does not bother me to offend people there who interpret the expression "gringo" as an insult for their intervention.
Additionally, as I have come to establish myself in Mexico, some of their ways and mannerism are adopted, Mexicans don't usually refer to people from the US as "Americanos" either, they call them "from the US" (if speaking in English) and either "estadounidenses", "gabachos" or "gringoes" (when in Spanish). If you had to choose one of the 3 and were communicating with people from the US, which of them do you think is best? Is "estadounidenses" more clear, intelligible, easily understood, than "gringoes"? I figure "gabacho" is even stranger, no?
I am not asked to call the gringoes Americans, just not to say they are gringoes, I can resort to "people from the US", it is more cumbersome though. However, as I find myself in a benevolent spirit, mindful of the possible misinterpretation by those who have not considered this matter as carefully, I am willing to make this concession; I will call gringoes whatever they prefer, except "Americans" unless we are referring to a collective that includes more than one American country.