A.Word.A.Day --gung ho

A.Word.A.Day

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Aug 28, 2017

This week’s theme
Linked words

This week’s words
gung ho
ho-hum
humbug
bugbear
bear leader

Gung Ho! A film based on the Makin Island raid led by Lt. Col. Evans Carlson

Image: IMDB

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

This week’s words are gung-ho, in a literal manner. They work together. They hold hands. How? It’ll become clear as the week progresses. Once you see it, what is the longest word chain you can make in this manner? Email it to us at words@wordsmith.org.

gung ho

PRONUNCIATION:

(GUHNG-HO)

MEANING:

adjective: Extremely eager and enthusiastic.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Chinese gonghe, an acronym from the Gongye Hezuoshe (Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society). The term gonghe was interpreted to mean “work together” and was introduced as a training slogan by US Marine Corps officer Evans Carlson (1896-1947). Earliest documented use: 1942.

USAGE:

“And although Brian Van Reet won a Bronze Star for valour, he clearly isn’t gung-ho about the American war effort.”
Mike Doherty; Spoils (book review); Maclean’s (Toronto, Canada); Apr 24, 2017.

See more usage examples of gung ho in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (28 Aug 1749-1832)

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