Crossword clues for gung-ho
gung-ho
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
a. (alternative spelling of gung ho English)
Wikipedia
Gung ho is an English term used to mean "enthusiastic" or "overzealous".
Gung ho is an anglicised pronunciation of "gōng hé" , which is also sometimes anglicised as "kung ho". "Gōng hé" is a shortened version of the term "gōngyè hézuòshè" or Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, which was abbreviated as INDUSCO in English.
The two Chinese characters "gōng" and "hé" are translatable individually as "work" and "together".
The linguist Albert Moe studied both the origin and the usage in English. He concludes that the term is an "Americanism that is derived from the Chinese, but its several accepted American meanings have no resemblance whatsoever to the recognized meaning in the original language" and that its "various linguistic uses, as they have developed in the United States, have been peculiar to American speech." In Chinese, concludes Moe, "this is neither a slogan nor a battle cry; it is only a name for an organization."
The term was picked up by United States Marine Corps Major Evans Carlson from his New Zealand friend, Rewi Alley, one of the founders of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. Carlson explained in a 1943 interview: "I was trying to build up the same sort of working spirit I had seen in China where all the soldiers dedicated themselves to one idea and worked together to put that idea over. I told the boys about it again and again. I told them of the motto of the Chinese Cooperatives, Gung Ho. It means Work Together-Work in Harmony...."
Later Carlson used gung ho during his (unconventional) command of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion. From there, it spread throughout the U.S. Marine Corps (hence the association between the two), where it was used as an expression of spirit and into American society as a whole when the phrase became the title of a 1943 war film, Gung Ho!, about the 2nd Raider Battalion's raid on Makin Island in 1942.
Gung-ho is an English-language term taken from Chinese.
Gung-ho may also refer to:
In film and television:
- Gung Ho (film), a 1986 American comedy starring Michael Keaton
- Gung Ho! (1943 film), a war film starring Randolph Scott
- Gung Ho (TV series), a 1986–1987 American series based on the 1986 film
- Gung-Ho Guns, fictional characters in the anime Trigun
In music:
- Gung Ho (album), an album by Patti Smith, or the title song
- "Gung-Ho", a song by Anthrax from Spreading the Disease
In other uses:
- Gung-Ho (G.I. Joe), a fictional character in the G.I. Joe universe
- Gung Ho – ICCIC, an organization in China to support the Gung Ho movement
- GungHo Online Entertainment a Japanese video game corporation
Gung-Ho is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, comic books, and cartoon series. He is the G.I. Joe Team's original Marine and debuted in 1983.
Usage examples of "gung-ho".
The frightening display of conventional weaponry deployed along the Canal sobered even the more gung-ho members of the staff.
I don't mean that he has the kind of gung-ho conquer-the-universe attitude that we had to have to get onto Geographic in the first place.
Thus the keen, gung-ho go-getter looks of Edwina's father were nicely softened by her mother's influence, leaving their daughter looking less like a hawk and more like a lamb.
Ex-Marine Corps, all-around weapons expert, and a human dynamo, as gung-ho as any man in the Treasury Department, Fortuna was an expert in small unit assault tactics--at least in his own mind.
They were gung-ho types who'd happily accept an order to go into a pit against a grizzly bear, armed only with a meat grinder.
Not as high profile or gung-ho as being a property developer, but Leah had no doubt that Gareth was a winner in his own field.
He's gung-ho at his job, and he's done some undercover work before.