How did we get this word?

I always thought that Honcho came to use in the United States via Mexico. It just sounds Spanish or at least South Western.

Today I had a reason to look it up even though I have known and used the word for years. I was just testing to see how high the real definition would come up on Bing or Google.

Once I looked it up I was surprised to find that it doesn't come from Spanish at all! It is from Japanese.

Japanese: hanchō squad leader, from han squad + chō head, chief

班長

You (can) learn something every day!