Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Rafe35 on June 19, 2004, 07:17:24 PM
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Learn the origin of the terms "Gremlin" and "Gung Ho."
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Gremlin: They are malicious little ill-humored gnome-like creatures with supernatural powers — able to walk around on B-17 wings in flight or work their way into a carburetor through the gas line. First heard of during the Second World War, they were responsible for unexplained and/or unexplainable mechanical failures mostly in aircraft and mostly in B-29 engines. "They were, perhaps, a blend of Irish gruaimín, a bad-tempered little fellow (from Middle Irish gruaim, gloom, surliness) and goblin." In fact, they sprang fully grown from the fertile minds of American fighting men trying to make some sense of a world gone mad. The word is now used to describe most any inexplicable mechanical failure. They, "Gremlins," can always be blamed when all else fails.
Gung HO: This unofabbreviation for the Mandarin Gonficial motto of the US Marine Corps is an gye Hezhoushe, or industrial cooperative. The term was used in China, starting in 1938, to refer to small, industrial operations that were being established in rural China to replace the industrial centers that had been captured by the Japanese. The phrase was clipped to the initial characters of the two words, gung ho (or gung he, as it would be transliterated today), which means "work together." This clipping became a slogan for the industrial cooperative movement.
BTW great to have ya back Rafe, was not the same in this forum with out ya! Bud
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I think the term "Gung Ho" was brought from China to the US by USMC Major Evans Carlson who started Carlson's Raiders and executed the Makin Island raid immortalized in the movie "Gung Ho". Carlson apparently was a liason with the Communist 8th Route Army which used the slogan. That army's political affiliation was never mentioned in the film. I recall the approximate translation given of the phrase as "go out and win".
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The translation was more to "all pull together" or "we all strive"
But it is VERY hard to translate as many Chinese sayings mean more than one thing. I think its part of that pictogram written language.
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XtrmeJ is correct! Congrats! :aok
Ps. Thanks. :)
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:D