More faux-acronymic "grunts"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 11/4/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Some time ago I reported on the assertion that the military sense of "grunt"
> is an acronym for "GRound Unit - Untrainable."
>
> That's kind of a stretch, even for a fake acronym, so here are improved versions:
>
> "Folklore has it that GRUNT was originally an acronym of Government Reject -
> Unfit for Normal Training.
>
> "Grunt Ground Roving Unit, Not Trainable"
>
> If grunt's are "government rejects," they shouldn't be wearing uniforms, but
> both tidbits come from here:
> http://www.milterms.com/search.php?method=exact&q=grunt&s=0.

Both of these, along with many others, were noted here...

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0606A&L=ADS-L&P=R1644


--Ben Zimmer

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