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 also the title of the 1931 play by Lynn Riggs which became the basis of the libretto for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!
One version of the lyrics (there are innumerable variations) opens: : I'm lonely, my darling, since parting with you; : And change the green lilacs to the Red, White and Blue. : She's gone and she's left me, I care not for one : For she loves another one better than me.
