Green Grow the Lilacs
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Green Grow the Lilacs is a folk song of Irish origin that was popular in the United States during the mid 1800s.
The song title is familiar as the source of an extremely dubious popular etymology for the word gringo, supposedly being a Hispanicization of "green grow," which Mexicans certainly could have heard U.S. troops singing during the Mexican-American War. (See gringo for a derivation from griego, which dictionaries suggest is more likely).
Green Grow the Lilacs is the title, which refers to the folk song, of an unpublished play by Lynn Riggs which became the libretto for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!
One version of the lyrics (there are innumerable variations) opens:
- Green grow the lilacs, all sparkling with dew
- I'm lonely, my darling, since parting with you;
- But by our next meeting I'll hope to prove true
- And change the green lilacs to the Red, White and Blue.
- I once had a sweetheart, but now I have none
- She's gone and she's left me, I care not for one
- Since she's gone and left me, contented I'll be,
- For she loves another one better than me.