In the Spanish language, the word gabacho (F gabacha) describes foreigners of different national origins in the history of Spain.
In some Hispanophone countries of Latin America, the word gabacho is akin to gringo and refers to people and things from the United States.
Moreover, in the Central American varieties of Spanish, the word gabacho refers to certain types of work-coats, such as the laboratory coat of a doctor, the smock of a kindergarten student, and a ceremonial vest worn in school-graduation ceremonies.
Robert A. Geuljans, etymologist, agrees with the connection between "gabacho" and the Aquitanian and Catalonian origins by considering that the origin of all, gabacho, gavatx and gavach comes from the Occitan word for "goiter", a disorder common in the French Pyrene caused for vitamin deficiency that impairs the ability to speak.
Pilgrims afflicted had been traveling from France to Spain since the Middle Ages, to follow the Camino de Santiago hoping for a miraculous cure.