Mexican standoff

Meaning

Noun

• A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
• A near-collision between two trains; an averted cornfield meet.

Origin

• 1876 US. Purpose of Mexican unclear: may be general derogatory term for neighboring country, as in Mexican breakfast, and similar use of Dutch in British English;Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977): Mexican Standoff
• “… derogatory epithets aimed at neighboring countries … classic case of such coinage of racially derogatory epithets was the rash of expressions coined by the English to put down their Dutch rivals during the eighteenth century … Something of the same attitude may be found in parts of the United States bordering Mexico. The expression ‘Mexican athlete’ is used to describe an athlete who goes out for the team but doesn’t make it. A ‘Mexican promotion’ is one in which an employee gets a fancy new title – but no increase in pay. And a ‘Mexican breakfast’ consists of a cigarette and a glass of water. So a ‘Mexican standoff’ is a situation from which nothing at all can be expected.” compare rare Dutch standoff, of same meaning. May be more specifically implying cowardly, or unproductive, or perhaps a reference to an event during the Mexican–American War (1846–1847).
• Three-way gun standoffs, popularized in spaghetti westerns such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966), have come to be called Mexican standoffs, though this usage appears to date to the 1990s, notably in reference to Reservoir Dogs (1992); earlier usage refers to this as a “three-way standoff” or “triangular standoff”.