Precise or General

Apparently, I prefer a precise use of language, as do many of the 659,000,000 other Americans who live south of the Río Bravo and in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, Canadians don't seem to share our point of view due to their phobia of being confused for Gringos. Be thankful I put the English version of the word's etymology. The Spanish version isn't quite so kind to people who use America as the name of a country and American as a demonym.

Un saludo, amigo.

As a Canadian, I don’t object to being referred to as a gringo, as do my friends in Mexico from France and Austria and Australia, even though none of us is Greek.

What are the origin, meaning and connotations of “gringo” in Spanish?

The overwhelming evidence is that gringo originated in Spain in the 1700s or earlier from griego, ‘Greek’, in the sense of unintelligible language. It applied first to language, but soon after also to those who spoke it. As the word spread throughout the Spanish-speaking Americas it kept this general meaning,…

And,

But already in those days there were folk etymologies around. For instance B. Vinuña MacKenna in História de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, 1869, records the “ingenious theory” popular in Valparaiso among “both gringos and natives” that gringo comes from a verse in a Scottish song, “green grow the rushes, O”. He explains however that:

The word "gringo ," which has given rise to so many false interpretations, such as that of Valparaiso , is derived simply from a Spanish proverb, or rather, from the degeneration of a word from it. " To speak in Greek ," the ancient Spaniards would say for that which they did not understand, and later the same expression was commonly used: to speak in "gringo ." From this came the saying that when people in America first began to see English people, and not understanding their language, they said that they spoke in "gringo ," and from this is still why the common people, in Chile as in Venezuela, in Buenos Aires as in Mexico, call all foreigners "gringos ," even if they were born in Leipzig or Copenhagen.

Rather than a “precise use of language”, I suggest you are practicing a “general use of language”.

People from EU countries are not likely to often refer to themselves using the general term “European”. They are more likely to use a more precise term such as French, Austrian, Greek, German, etc. People from Asia are likely to refer to themselves using precise terms such as Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, etc., not the more general “Asian”.

Similarly, people from the Americas are likely to refer to themselves more precisely than more generally. My colleague from Chile referred to himself as Chilean. My coworker from Paraguay referred to her self as Paraguayan. These people didn’t refer to themselves as “American” any more than my colleague from New Zealand would refer to herself as being an Oceanian. She was a New Zealander or colloquially, a Kiwi.

The origin of the word “terrific” relates to terror. Something that inspired terror was terrific. But that is not how it is now understood. A Stephen King movie might be referred to as terrific, but a brilliant comedy might be considered to be a terrific movie as well.

I suggest it is useful to use language as it is understood.

I also suggest it is respectful to refer to people as they self-identify. I met a woman in Troncones who spoke unaccented English and spoke Spanish fluently. She lived and worked at her business in Canada seasonally. I asked her whether she was “Mexican”.

She didn’t answer yes or no. She said, “I am Maya.” I henceforth referred to her as being “Maya” as that was her preferred identity.

I hope that all will refer to people as being American if that is how they self-identify; Mexican if that is how they self-identify; or Canadian if that is how they self-identify. And yes, Québécois if that is how they self-identify.