Page "Gringo" Paragraph 6

The consensus among etymologists.

is that gringo is a variant of griego ‘ Greek ’ speech ( cf.

Greek to me ).

Nevertheless, it has been suggested that griego > gringo is phonetically unlikely, because the derivation requires two steps: ( i ) griego > grigo, and ( ii ) grigo > gringo.

Instead it is claimed that gringo might derive from Caló, the language of the Romani people of Spain, as a variant of ( pere ) gringo ‘ peregrine ’, ‘ wayfarer ’, and ‘ stranger ’.