"Green Grows the Lilacs", also known as "Green Grow the Laurel" has a long history and was known in most parts of Britain. It was popular with American troops fighting in the war with Mexico (1846–1848). There is a widely accepted folk etymology that dates the word "gringo" (meaning non-Spanish speaking) to the Mexican–American War as a result of American troops singing this song which began "Green Grow the Lilacs". The derivation more probably comes from "Greek" meaning unintelligible ("It's all Greek to me!"). It was printed in Sharp's English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians (1917), Belden's Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society (1955), Creighton's Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia (1932), Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America (1960), Roud's Folksong Index #279, Randolph's Ozark Folksongs (1946-1950), Scarborough's A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains (1937), Palmer's Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1983) and others. It was recorded by Peter Kennedy on Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, Tex Ritter & his Texans on Green Grow the Lilacs (1945) and others.