Is this term derogatory?
In this article about mexican slang on span¡shd!ct.com it's stated that gringo has been replaced with gabacho in common usage. At a gathering the other night while speaking to some mexican acquaintances, I referred to myself as a gabacho and they all died laughing. Did I insult myself?
3 Answers
Funny enough, I just heard this word for the first time today. I was called a 'gabacho' by a young man from Honduras whom I had just met. He said it without any malice or obvious contempt, just 'matter-of-factly'. Later, I had to ask my Mexican friend who had been with me, just what that meant. He smiled and said that in southern Mexico where he is from (and maybe Honduras also) they use three terms interchangeably for Americans (US): gabacho, gringo and huero. Of those three, he has heard gabacho the most.
I had yet to look this up, and I still want to do a little research on it, but my story seemed relevant. 
Incidentally, from time to time I have called myself a 'gringo' and this has often brought smiles or laughs from the people I was talking to. (Which was my intention! 
)
I will skip the definition for the adjective (frenchy or "froggy" I found in my newly downloaded Collins Unabridged, as well will I skip the entry for the adjective referring to a Pyrenean villager (Geol) "Pyrenean" (related, I suppose, the Pyranees dividing Spain from France in the Northeast.
Instead I bring your attention to the 3rd entry that the Collins Unabridged gives for the noun: one entry with the indication that the use is in Mexico; the other, in Texas:
SM/F 1* (pey) frog *, Frenchy *
2 (Geog) Pyrenean villager
3 (Méx) (= extranjero) foreigner, outsider
(en Tejas) white American, Yankee
My dictionary defines it as Scorn or French(man/woman). This dictionary says "frog" which I have heard Americans use as a term for French people and it also says it is dersive in peninsular Spanish. I have not read the article.
I read the article.I am not sure I would look at individual posts as "articles" on this site.If you are on the forum long enough you will learn whose opinion carries the most validity.He never really says where you might say some of these phrases and be "correct"
Volpon posted the other day about using the term "que onda" I believe and it was not well received when he said it because of the group that usually uses it.
