''Gung ho'' () is an English term, with the current meaning of 'enthusiastic or energetic', especially overly so. It originated during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
(1937–1945) from a
Chinese term, ( zh, hp=gōnghé, l=to work together), short for
Chinese Industrial Cooperatives ( zh, c=工業合作社, hp=Gōngyè Hézuòshè).
Overview
The linguist Albert Moe concluded that the term is an "Americanism that is derived from the Chinese, but its several accepted American meanings have no resemblance whatsoever to the recognized meaning in the original language", and that its "various linguistic uses, as they have developed in the United States, have been peculiar to American speech". In Chinese, concludes Moe, "this is neither a slogan nor a battle cry; it is only a name for an organization".
The term was picked up by
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
Major
Evans Carlson from his New Zealand friend,
Rewi Alley, one of the founders of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. Carlson explained in a 1943 interview: "I was trying to build up the same sort of working spirit I had seen in China where all
the soldiers
The Soldiers is a singing trio consisting of serving British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, ...
dedicated themselves to one idea and worked together to put that idea over. I told the boys about it again and again. I told them of the motto of the Chinese Cooperatives, ''Gung Ho''. It means Work Together — Work in Harmony."
Carlson used ''gung ho'' as a motto during his unconventional command of the
2nd Marine Raider Battalion
The Marine Raiders are special operations forces originally established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare.
Despite the original intent for Raiders to serve in a special opera ...
, leading to other marines adopting the term to mean overly enthusiastic. From there, it spread throughout the U.S. Marine Corps, where it was used as an expression of spirit, and then into American society as a whole when the term was the title of a 1943 war film, ''
Gung Ho!
''Gung Ho!'' (full title: ''Gung Ho!: The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders'') is a 1943 American war film directed by Ray Enright and starring Randolph Scott. The story is based somewhat on the real-life World War II Makin Island raid led ...
'', about the 2nd Raider Battalion's
raid on Makin Island in 1942.
See also
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History of the cooperative movement in China
*
Chinese Industrial Cooperatives
*
List of United States Marine Corps acronyms and expressions
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gung Ho
1940s neologisms
Chinese words and phrases
Cooperatives
Military slang and jargon
United States Marine Corps lore and symbols