Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
No one knows why Russian soldiers decided to apply this word to Americans, but one theory is that it was a "phonetic euphemism" for пидор -- which means "faggot" or "cocksucker" both in the literal sense of "a homosexual man" and in the figurative sense of "a worthless asshole who rides a loud, annoying Harley" (© South Park). So if this theory is true...
I have an alternative view. First, "пиндос" is not so rude as "faggot" etc. It's still a disparaging word, but no more. Second, I'm sure you know about the word "америкос" (= American, a bit offensive too) and about the word "пингвин" (= penguin). The word "пиндос" sounds for Russians like "пингвин + америкос". You know that penguins are fat, stupid and move awkwardly - like American soldiers look with their ammunition. That's the reason why the Russians soldiers called Americans "пиндосы". It has nothing to do with the Greek word, of course. Just sort of "phonetic transfer" (I'm not sure it is a correct term or not).