Jeep Bibliography -- (information from Jonathan Lighter)

Wed Sep 22 13:15:06 UTC 2010

The auto address feature of Gmail impishly sent this to Michael 30 secs.
ago, but I meant it for everyone:

Michael's treatment is probably the best summary I've seen.  The quotation
from Liberman is applicable to more than just etymology. (Try the JFK
assassination, for example.)

Some minor comments:  though the jeep was officially (and hence inevitably)
decribed
as a "1/4-ton" vehicle, the quarter-ton refers not to its weight, as any
ordinarily intelligent person would assume, but to its "payload," the weight
it could carry in addition to the driver and passengers. (The actual weight
of the "1/4-ton truck" was over 2,000 lbs.)  The same principle goes for the
"1/2-ton" command car, also called a "jeep" but otherwise a different
design.  Needless to say, whether the larger car received the nickname
before or after the smaller and more famous may not be determinable -
presumably after, but only presumably.

The initials "GP" were indeed used during WWII by the Army (and probably the
other services) to abbrev. "general purpose," but in my experience this
initialism was applied only to aerial bombs and never, in ordinary usage, to
the jeep. In fact, the application of "GP" to bombs seems to have been
almost universal among bomber crews in the AAF; thus, unshakable faith in
"GP" as the etymology of "jeep" may have originated there.

Except for some people at Ford, virtually no one would have cared about the
company's cryptic "GP" designation of the vehicle; mechanics would certainly
have seen (though not necessarily thought about) the designation which was
embossed (though not explained), along with far more interesting and
important specs, on the metal specification plate affixed to the dashboard.

Also, I suspect that the early figurative uses of "jeep" took two paths. One
(as applied to people) was disparaging, comparing them to a weird little
animal. The other, applied to material objects was chiefly that of novelty.
(Cf. _whatchamacallit_.)  This seems logical because the gist of the
originating Popeye cartoons was that the meaning of the word "jeep" was a
complete mystery. The next implied riddle was the nature of the Jeep
himself.  What exactly was he?  There was no real explanation beyond
"magic."

I fantasize the arrival, for testing, of the prototype vehicle in a big
crate.  Somebody says, "What's in the box?" Somebody else says, "The Jeep."

(The fantasy works, mutatis mutandis, for arrival under a tarp as well.)

On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 10:39 PM, Gerald Cohen <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Gerald Cohen <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Jeep Bibliography -- (information from Jonathan Lighter)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It seems clear that a comprehensive treatment of =B3jeep=B2 might be in
> order,
> and as a very
> preliminary step towards this goal I now forward an exchange of e-mails I
> had
> today with Jonathan Lighter (in reverse chronological order).  My thanks to
> Jonathan for his helpfulness in this.
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
>
> From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:00:56 -0400
> To: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at mst.edu>
> Subject: Re: Jeep Bibliography
>
> Posting to the list=A0would be fine.
> =A0
> I'm sure Mencken=A0offers a brief=A0discussion, though if it were
> significant
> I'd have cited it.
> =A0
> Many of the HDAS cites will seem gratuitous to some, but I think they all
> contribute something tangible to the entire picture.
> =A0
> I also suggest in the ety. note in HDAS that the cartoon Jeep's
> inarticulat=
> e
> cry of "Jeep! Jeep!" may have been sugg. by the "Cheep! Cheep!"=A0of
> cartoon
> birds.=A0Just a guess, of course.
> =A0
> Jon
>
> On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 11:47 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>
> wrote:
> >=20
> > =A0 Thanks, Jon. I'd like to share your message below with the other
> ads-l
> > members; I'm sure at least several will be interested in it. =A0Unless I
> he=
> ar
> > from you to the contrary, I'll do so this evening.
> >=20
> > =A0 Also, maybe a comprehensive treatment of "jeep" based on your
> bibliogra=
> phic
> > references would be a possibility. =A0I don't have time for this myself
> at =
> the
> > moment, but perhaps I could find an interested student assistant who
> woul=
> d
> > like doing this as a semester task.
> >=20
> > Best. --- Jerry
> >=20
> > ________________________________
> >=20
> > From: Jonathan Lighter [mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com]
> > Sent: Tue 9/21/2010 10:12 AM
> > To: Cohen, Gerald Leonard
> > Subject: OT: Jeep Bibliography
> >=20
> > Jerry, I can't find my specific notes for the comments in the Atlantic,
> b=
> ut
> > below are the expanded references from HDAS. I think it's much too long
> a=
> nd
> > specialized for the posting to the List.
> >=20
> > Not quoted but very valuable for its technical history of the vehicle is
> > =A0David Fetherston, Jeep. Osceola, Wis.: Motorbooks, 1996.
> > I wonder if newspaper databases of 1936-41 would reveal anything new and
> > significant.
> >=20
> > Best,
> >=20
> > Jon
> >=20
> > SOURCES
> >=20
> > Berent, Mark. Rolling Thunder =A0N.Y.: Jove Books, 1989, p. 63.
> >=20
> > Berrey, Lester V., and Melvin Van den Bark. The American Thesaurus of
> Sla=
> ng,
> > with Supplement. N.Y.: Crowell, 1947. =A0Supplement, p. 32.
> >=20
> > Blackburn, Tom. The Jolly Rogers. N.Y.: Orion, 1989. P. 87.
> >=20
> > Boehm, Sydney. Union Station. Film, 1950.
> >=20
> > Cannon, Jimmy. Nobody Asked Me, But. . . . Ed. J. Cannon and T. Cannon.
> N=
> .Y.:
> > Penguin, 1983. =A0P. 312.
> >=20
> > Current Slang (U. of South Dakota) V (Summer), p. 16.
> >=20
> > Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Notebooks of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ed. M. J.
> > Bruccoli. N.Y.: Harcourt, 1978. P. 297.
> >=20
> > Gingrich, Newt, and William =A0Forstchen. 1945. Riverdale, N.Y.: Baen,
> 1995=
> . P.
> > 379.
> >=20
> > The Great Music of Duke Ellington. Melville, N.Y.: Belwin-Mills, 1973.
> P.=
>  133.
> >=20
> > Hamann, Fred. Air Words. Seattle: Superior, 1946.
> >=20
> > Honey, John. The Wing Will Fly. Discovery Channel TV, 1991.
> >=20
> > Kahn, E. J. Army Life. =A0 N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1942. =A0P. 136.
> >=20
> > Kendall, Park. =A0A Dictionary of Army and Navy Slang, by Park Kendall
> and
> > Johnny Viney. N.Y.: Mills, 1941.
> >=20
> > Kisseloff, Jeff. You Must Remember This. San Diego: Harcourt, 1989. =A0P.
> 6=
> 4.
> >=20
> > LeVier, Tony, and John Guenther. Pilot. =A01954; rpt. N.Y.: Bantam, 1990.
> =A0=
> P.
> > 86.
> >=20
> > Linnekin, Richard. Eighty Knots to Mach 2. Annapolis: U.S. Naval
> Institut=
> e
> > Press, 1991. P. 96.
> >=20
> > Lockwood, Charles A. Lockwood. Zoomies, Subs, and Zeros. N.Y.: Greenberg,
> > 1956. P. 9.
> >=20
> > Loosbrock, John F., and Richard M. Skinner. The Wild Blue : The Story of
> > American Air Power. N.Y.: Putnam, 1961. =A0P. 269.
> >=20
> > McCloskey, R. J. "Jeep." American Notes & Queries (Dec., 1943), p. 176.
> >=20
> > Morison, Samuel Eliot. History ofUnited States Naval Operations in World
> =
> War
> > II. Vol. X. =A0Boston: Little, Brown, 1956. P. 41
> >=20
> > "Nation Begins Creeping Mobilization..." =A0Life (July 24, 1950), p. 32.
> >=20
> > Randolph Field: A History and Guide. N.Y.: Devin-Adair, 1942. P. 77.
> >=20
> > Sagendorf, Bud. Popeye: The First Fifty Years. N.Y,: Workman, 1979. P.
> 88=
> .
> >=20
> > [VMF-323 U.S. Marine Corps]. "A Collection of Old American Ballads."
> =A0Unp=
> aged
> > TS., 1953 [inaccurately dated "1951" in HDAS].
> >=20
> > Weinberg, Robert E., et al. eds. Tough Guys & Dangerous Dames. N.Y.:
> Barn=
> es &
> > Noble, 1993. P. 6.
> >=20
> > HDAS also cites the following periodicals. I did not note authors and
> tit=
> les
> > of articles:
> >=20
> > American Notes & Queries (Jan, 1944), p. 156.
> >=20
> > American Speech (Oct., 1941), p. 166, XX (1945), p. 261, XXIX (1954), p.
> =
> 260,
> > XXXVII (1962), p. 77.
> >=20
> > Army Ordnance (July, 1941), p. 79
> >=20
> > The Infantry Journal (July, 1941), p.68.
> >=20
> > The Leatherneck (June, 1942), p. 59.
> >=20
> > The National Geographic Magazine (July, 1941), p. 25.
> >=20
> > New York Times (Feb. 22, 1941) p. 8.
> >=20
> > New York Times Magazine (July 2, 1944), p. 38.
> >=20
> > Saturday Evening Post (July 16, 1938), p. 16; (May 30, 1942), p, 67.
> >=20
> > The Smithsonian (Nov., 1992), p. 63.
> >=20
> > Washington [D.C.] Daily News =A0(Feb. 20, 1941), p.12.
> >=20
> > Yank-The Army Weekly =A0(Nov. 11, 1942), p. 4, (May 7, 1943), p. 14.
> >=20
> >=20
>
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