Mexican standoff

Etymology:

• 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; 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.
• Three-way gun standoffs, popularized in spaghetti westerns such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, have come to be called Mexican standoffs, though this usage appears to date to the 1990s, notably in reference to Reservoir Dogs; earlier usage refers to this as a “three-way standoff” or “triangular standoff”.