Slang Word-Coiners (Evans Carlson: gung ho)

[Gerald Cohen]

   WWII hero Evans Carlson coined "gung ho" in its present slang usage.
The term was originally an abbreviated form of an 8-word Chinese name
rendered in English as "Chinese Industrial Cooperatives" (mobile
factories used by the Chinese to evade capture by the Japanese).
Carlson evidently misunderstood this Chinese use of "gung ho" and
misinterpreted it to mean "work together," since "gung" literally
means "work" and "ho" literally means "harmony."

   OED erred in its treatment of "gung ho" by not mentioning Carlson's
biography (_The Big Yankee_) in the list of attestations and by
deriving "gung ho" from the Chinese for "work together." I forget how
the Chinese say "work together," but it's not "gung ho."

        See Albert F. Moe 1967. "Gung Ho" in _American Speech_ 42: 19-30;
also: my article "Gung Ho Revisited" in:_ Studies in Slang_, part IV
(edited: Gerald Leonard Cohen) (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang), 1995,
pp.1-50.

    BTW, yesterday I sent a message about "jam session" being probably
coined by Mezz Mezzrow. I should have added Mezzrow's comment that he
was nicknamed both  "Jelly" and "Roll"  because he liked to play
Clarence Williams' classic "Jelly Roll." Hence one of the meanings of
"Jelly" in the bantering shout "Jelly's gonna jam some now" is Mezz
Mezzrow.

--Gerald Cohen