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Gringo
''Gringo'' (, , ) (masculine) (or ''gringa'' (feminine)) is a term in Spanish and Portuguese for a foreigner, usually an English-speaking Anglo-American. There are differences in meaning depending on region and country. In Latin America, it is generally used to refer to non- Latin Americans. The term is often considered a pejorative in English, and in the United States its usage and offensiveness is disputed.English dictionaries: * * * * Spanish dictionaries: * * Portuguese dictionaries: * The word derives from the term used by the Spanish for a Greek person: ''griego''. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the first recorded use in English comes from John Woodhouse Audubon's ''Western Journal of 1849–1850'', ''grigo'', and ''grigo'' > ''gringo''. Corominas notes that while the first change is common in Spanish (e.g. '' priesa'' to '' prisa''), there is no perfect analogy for the second, save in Old French (''Gregoire'' to ''Grigoire'' to ''Gringoire'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Patrick's Battalion
The Saint Patrick's Battalion ( es, Batallón de San Patricio, later reorganized as the Foreign Legion of Patricios) was a unit of 175 to several hundred (accounts vary) immigrants and expatriates of European descent who fought as part of the Mexican Army against the United States in the Mexican–American War of 1846–48. Formed and led by John Riley, the battalion's members included many who had deserted or defected from the United States Army. The battalion served as an artillery unit for much of the war. Despite later being formally designated as two infantry companies, it retained artillery pieces throughout the conflict. The were responsible for the toughest battles encountered by the United States in its invasion of Mexico, with Ulysses S. Grant remarking that "Churubusco proved to be about the severest battle fought in the valley of Mexico". Composed primarily of Catholic Irish immigrants, the battalion also included Germans, Canadians, English, French, Italians, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Grow The Lilacs
Green Grow the Lilacs is a folk song of Irish origin that was popular in the United States during the mid-19th century. The song title is the source of a folk etymology for the word '' gringo'' that states that the Mexicans misheard U.S. troops singing "green grow" during the Mexican–American War. The song appears in the 1931 stage play of the same name by Lynn Riggs, which is the basis of the 1943 musical ''Oklahoma!'' Recordings * 1941 Tony Kraber – included in the 78rpm album ''The Old Chisholm Trail – Songs Of The American Southwest''. * 1957 Gordon MacRae – included in his album ''Cowboy's Lament''. * 1959 Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney – included in the album '' How the West Was Won''. * 1959 Harry Belafonte Recorded in 1958 and released in 1959 on the RCA LP "Love Is a Gentle Thing" LSP1927 * 1963 Chad Mitchell Trio * 1965 Johnny Cash * 1966 Tex Ritter * 1976 The Blue Sky Boys The Blue Sky Boys were an American country music duo consisting of the brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek To Me
That's Greek to me or it's (all) Greek to me is an idiom in English referring to an expression that is difficult to understand for the sayer. It is commonly a complex or imprecise verbal or written expression or diagram, often containing excessive use of jargon, dialect, mathematics, science, or symbols. Although to some it may seem an insult, the metaphor simply refers to the Greek language (either ancient or modern) as typifying foreign communication, written or spoken, and may be a dead metaphor, one that has lost its original understood meaning. Origins It may have been a direct translation of a similar phrase in la, Graecum est; non potest legi ("it is Greek, hereforeit cannot be read"). The phrase is widely believed to have its origins among medieval scribes. While most scribes were familiar with Latin, few were schooled in Greek. When copying classic manuscripts they would frequently encounter passages and quotations in Greek which they would have no way of translating, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. It is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico. Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo, a prominent c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erin Go Bragh
Erin go Bragh ( ), sometimes Erin go Braugh, is the anglicisation of an Irish language phrase, , and is used to express allegiance to Ireland. It is most often translated as "Ireland Forever." Origin ''Erin go Bragh'' is an anglicisation of the phrase in the Irish language. The standard version in Irish is , which is pronounced . However, (which survives as the dative form in the modern standard) is a historic form used instead of in two dialects; this is the source of the anglicised ''Erin''. In all other dialects the distinction between the nominative and the dative is retained. This linguistic shift (dative forms replacing nominative) is common among Irish nouns of the second and fifth declensions. The term is equivalent to 'eternity' or 'end of time', meaning the phrase may be translated literally as 'Ireland until eternity' or 'Ireland to the end (of time)'. (or ) is also used in Irish and means the same thing. is a preposition, translatable as 'to', 'till/unt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Grow The Rushes, O
Green Grow the Rushes, O (alternatively "Ho" or "Oh") (also known as "The Twelve Prophets", "The Carol of the Twelve Numbers", "The Teaching Song", "The Dilly Song", or "The Ten Commandments"), is an English folk song (Roud #133). It is sometimes sung as a Christmas carol. It often takes the form of antiphon, where one voice calls and is answered by a chorus. The song is not to be confused with Robert Burns's similarly titled "Green Grow the Rashes" nor with the Irish folk band Altan's song of the same name. It is cumulative in structure, with each verse built up from the previous one by appending a new stanza. The first verse is: :I'll sing you one, O :Green grow the rushes, O :What is your one, O? :One is one and all alone :And evermore shall be so. There are many variants of the song, collected by musicologists including Sabine Baring-Gould and Cecil Sharp from the West of England at the start of the twentieth century. The stanzas are clearly much corrupted and often ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its territory. Mexico refused to recognize the Velasco treaty, because it was signed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna while he was captured by the Texan Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texas was ''de facto'' an independent country, but most of its Anglo-American citizens wanted to be annexed by the United States. Sectional politics over slavery in the United States were preventing annexation because Texas would have been admitted as a slave state, upsetting the balance of power between Northern free states and Southern slave states. In the 1844 United States presidential election, Democrat James K. Polk was elected on a platform of expand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folk Etymologies
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes. The term ''folk etymology'' is a loan translation from German ''Volksetymologie'', coined by Ernst Förstemann in 1852. Folk etymology is a productive process in historical linguistics, language change, and social interaction. Reanalysis of a word's history or original form can affect its spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. This is frequently seen in relation to loanwords or words that have become archaic or obsolete. Examples of words created or changed through folk etymology include the English dialectal form ''sparrowgrass'', originally from Greek ("asparagus") remade by analogy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romani People In Spain
The Romani in Spain, generally known by the exonym () or the endonym ''Calé'', belong to the Iberian Cale Romani subgroup, with smaller populations in Portugal (known as ) and in Southern France. Their sense of identity and cohesion stems from their shared value system, expressed among the as the ('Gypsy laws'). Traditionally, they maintain their social circles strictly within their patrigroups, as interaction between patrigroups increases the risk of feuding, which may result in fatalities. The emergence of Pentecostalism has impacted this practice, as the lifestyle of Pentecostal ''gitanos'' involves frequent contact with ''gitanos'' from outside their own patrigroups during church services and meetings. Data on ethnicity are not collected in Spain, although the public pollster CIS estimated in 2007 that the number of ''gitanos'' present in Spain is probably around one million. Name The term ''gitano'' evolved from the word ''egiptano'' ("Egyptian"), which was the Old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caló Language
Caló (; ; ; ) is a language spoken by the Spanish and Portuguese Romani. It is a mixed language (referred to as a Para-Romani language in Romani linguistics) based on Romance grammar, with an adstratum of Romani lexical items through language shift by the Romani community. It is often used as an argot, a secret language for discreet communication amongst Iberian Romani. Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish are closely related varieties that share a common root.Adiego, I. ''Un vocabulario español-gitano del Marqués de Sentmenat (1697–1762)'' Ediciones Universitat de Barcelona (2002) Spanish caló, or Spanish Romani, was originally known as . Portuguese , or Portuguese Romani, also goes by the term ; it used to be referred to as , but this word has since acquired the general sense of jargon or slang, often with a negative undertone (cf. , 'obscene language', lit. low-level ). The language is mainly spoken in Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal and Colombia. Etymo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pig Latin
Pig Latin is a language game or argot in which words in English are altered, usually by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable to create such a suffix. For example, Wikipedia would become Ikipediaway (taking the 'W' and 'ay' to create a suffix). The objective is to conceal the words from others not familiar with the rules. The reference to Latin is a deliberate misnomer; Pig Latin is simply a form of argot or jargon unrelated to Latin, and the name is used for its English connotations as a strange and foreign-sounding language. It is most often used by young children as a fun way to confuse people unfamiliar with Pig Latin. Origins and history Early mentions of pig Latin or hog Latin describe what we would today call dog Latin, a type of parody Latin. Examples of this predate even Shakespeare, whose 1598 play, ''Love's Labour's Lost'', includes a reference to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
