G.I.

[Steve K.]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2000, Peter Richardson wrote:

> I had always thought G.I. stood for Gov't Issue, but, upon checking
> Wentworth/Flexner, DAS, find a reference to _G.I. can_, (that is, my
> brother's definition) with a date of ca.  1920; the 'Gov't Issue' meaning
> goes back to about 1935. Is there any more information about either of
> these?

When I wrote the NTC's Dictionary of Acronyms & Abbreviations back in
1991, I spent a lot of time ferreting out information on this. (And this
was prior to my having a connection to anything other than a local BBS. No
searches.) At that time, for the entry GI, I put down sense 1 as
galvanized iron. For sense 2, I put down an enlisted solider of the United
States Army. Informal military slang probably originally derived from
sense 1. Later assumed to have come from "government issue"...

I hedged my bets with the 'probably'.


--- Steve K.