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[scot47]

The etymology I heard was that "khawadja" is Persian, not Sudanese Arabic.

[el_gringo_que_viaja]

According to the American Heritage dictionary (http://www.bartleby.com/61/25/G0272500.html), it's the Latin root. Another website (http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20000821.html) explains each of the three theories.

From The American Heritage Dictionary:

gringo

NOUN:
Inflected forms: pl. grin�gos
Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.

ETYMOLOGY:
Spanish, foreign, foreign language, gibberish, probably alteration of griego, Greek, from Latin Graecus. See Greek.

WORD HISTORY:
In Latin America the word gringo is an offensive term for a foreigner, particularly an American or English person. But the word existed in Spanish before this particular sense came into being. In fact, gringo may be an alteration of the word griego, the Spanish development of Latin Graecus, �Greek.� Griego first meant �Greek, Grecian,� as an adjective and �Greek, Greek language,� as a noun. The saying �It's Greek to me� exists in Spanish, as it does in English, and helps us understand why griego came to mean �unintelligible language� and perhaps, by further extension of this idea, �stranger, that is, one who speaks a foreign language.� The altered form gringo lost touch with Greek but has the senses �unintelligible language,� �foreigner, especially an English person,� and in Latin America, �North American or Britisher.� Its first recorded English use (1849) is in John Woodhouse Audubon's Western Journal: �We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called �Gringoes.��

[Hector_Lector]

�Khawadja�- possibly is originally Farsi.

It certainly became a very Sudanese word - I don�t know what the situation is now.

[el_gringo_que_viaja]

Which will I hear as I walk the streets of Riyadh?

khawadja, nasrani, or ferangi

all three?

[veiledsentiments]

I'm not exactly an linguist of Arabic. I was of the impression that the word 'khawaga' was an Egyptian Arabic word. (since in Egyptian Arabic they use the hard g instead of j sound) They also use the term 'nasrani.' I never heard the word 'farangi' in any of the countries I lived. I was taught that the Classical Arabic term for foreigner was 'ejnabi.' I recall American sitcoms being introduced as the 'muselsel egnabi' on Egyptian TV. I fear we will need an Arabic linguist to research whether it came from Persian or if it went south from Egypt or north from Sudan.

But if a western male was walking down the street, a vendor would yell 'ya khawaga' to get his attention. It always cracked us up as we couldn't imagine an English speaker yelling 'hey foreigner' to get someone to buy in his shop.

In the Gulf, I usually heard 'egnabi.'

VS

[el_gringo_que_viaja]

In Colombia and Brazil, they yelled "hey gringo" to me all the time, which never bothered me. The one that did bother me in Colombia was "mono" (monkey). Anyone light skinned, including Colombians, was refered to as a monkey. My response to "hey gringo" was usually "hey latin" or "hey colombian," which always got either a laugh or strange look in response.