English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

2006-12-13 05:20:27 · 4 answers · asked by Sir Sidney Snot 6 in Education & Reference Words & Wordplay

4 answers

This is an adaptation of the Chinese kung - work, and ho - together. The Anglicized term gung ho became widely known in English as a slogan that was adopted in WWII by the United States Marines under General Evans Carlson.

2006-12-13 05:25:21 · answer #1 · answered by M M 4 · 0 0

Gung Ho was adopted in 1942, as the motto of Carlson's Raiders, (2nd Marine Raider Battalion, under Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, 1896-1947), U.S. guerrilla unit operating in the Pacific in World War II. It is thought to have been derived from the Chinese kung ho "work together, cooperate."

2006-12-13 13:30:27 · answer #2 · answered by BARROWMAN 6 · 0 0

Gung-ho is a phrase borrowed from Chinese, frequently used in English as an adjective meaning enthusiastic. The original Mandarin Chinese phrase is Gōnghé, a standard abbreviation for gōngyè hézuòshè, meaning industrial worker's cooperative. (It is true that gōng means work and hé means together, but gōnghé by itself is not a standard Chinese term and serves only as an abbreviation for gōngyè hézuòshè: an English-language analogy of a not-fully-comprehensible abbreviated phrase would be "IndCoop".)

The phrase entered the American vernacular when it was picked up by then-Major Evans F. Carlson, USMC. According to Carlson, it was used as a slogan by the WW2-era Communist Party of China's 8th Route Army, led by Zhu De.

The phrase was originally coined by Rewi Alley, a New Zealander who went to China in the 1920s and whose contribution to the country was later recognised when he became modern China's first honorary citizen. The industrial workers co-operatives that were formed as part of the Gung-ho movement stemmed from Helen Foster (Peg) Snow, wife of American journalist Edgar Snow. Peg Snow suggested to Rewi Alley that China needed widespread industry through the establishment of a movement (Alley, 1987).

Carlson traveled with the 8th and with Rewi Alley. Later he used gung ho during his (unconventional) command of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion. From there it spread throughout the Marine Corps (hence the association between the two) and into American society as a whole. It is now often used in the ironic sense of excessively enthusiastic, overzealous.

2006-12-13 14:09:29 · answer #3 · answered by d1ckdeckard 3 · 0 1

it is derived from chinese phrase-i dont recal whole thing-the short and sweet-it means face forward

2006-12-13 13:26:28 · answer #4 · answered by some random dude 2 · 0 0

fedest.com, questions and answers