From: steven@syacus.acus.oz.au (Steven Malikoff)
Subject: WW2 Jeeps: GP was not 'General Purpose'
Organization: ACUS Australian Centre for Unisys Software, Sydney
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 06:29:34 GMT

OK, I didn't realise that people over here in a.a.a would be so interested
in this, but I have had requests to repost the blurb I put together for
alt.useage.english a few weeks ago regarding how the name and word 'jeep'
came into use before and during World War 2. Here it is, a.a.a readers:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         Etymology of 'Jeep'
                         ===================
The following references have been used:
[1]  "All-American Wonder  The Military Jeep 1941-1945 (Volume 1)"
      by Ray R. Cowdery  ISBN 0-910667-09-08  published 1986

[2]  "All-American Wonder  The Military Jeep 1941-1945 (Volume 2)"
      by Ray R. Cowdery  ISBN 0-910667-20-9   published 1990

[3]  "The Jeep"
      by Jean-Gariel Jeudy and Marc Tarerine  ISBN 0-85429-584-4  pub. 1981

According to [1] p21: (quoted verbatim):
<*start quotation*>

What does GP really mean?
"This must be the longest running mystery in the preproduction jeep field.
Nearly every written source says GP means "General Purpose". Not so. The
page reproduced here from Ford's book "SERVICE SCHOOL for US Army Instruct-
ors on Ford US Army Vehicles (1941)", shows very clearly that in all Ford
prefixes G always means GOVERNMENT and P means 80 inch wheelbase Reconn-
aissance Car (jeeps). The W in GPW stands for Willys of course, who built
the MA on which the GPW was based."

<*I've summarised the typed page printed above this paragraph to:*>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
8-5-41                                                   Section D-1
                                                              Page 1
                    FORD PARTS NUMBERING SYSTEM

Prefix
------
The first digit in the prefix indicates the year for which the part was
designed as follows:
           "8" for 1938
           "9" for 1939
           "0" for 1940
           "1" for 1941
           "G" Government units regardless of year

The second digit, which may be either a "one", "two" or a "nine" has the
following significance:
           1 Stands for 85 H.P. V-8
           2 Stands for 60 H.P. V-8
           9 Stands for 95 H.P. V-8
           N Stands for 4-Cyl
           P Stands for 80 W/B Reconnaissance Car

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<*end of quotation*>

Earliest printed usage of the word 'jeep':
==========================================
According to [1] p.43 (quoted v.):
A feature story written by Katherine Hillyer and published on 16 March 1941
in the Washington Daily News called the 1/4 ton 4x4 a jeep. It was never
called anything else thereafter.
<actual article follows, quoted v.: >

<section of Popeye comic strip featuring Eugene, with the following caption:>
THIS POPEYE COMIC STRIP, PUBLISHED APRIL 22, 1940,
was introduced in evidence at hearing to determine the origin of the
word, "JEEP," as applied to military vehicles. A Minneapolis
army sergeant testified the strip inspired him to first coin the
word. Popeye is a regular Daily Times feature.
                * * *                           * * *

<main article>
DAILY TIMES COMIC STRIP ANIMAL INSPIRED SOLDIER TO USE OF 'JEEP'
  The versatility of a roguish imp in the Daily Times comic strip, 
"Popeye," four years ago inspired a Minneapolis army sergeant to apply
the appellation "JEEP" to the army's 7,500-pound tractor trucks until
then known as prime movers, Sergeant James T. O'Brien, 1207 W. Broadway,
testified before the federal trade commission here.

  J. Earl Cox, commission trial examiner, conducted a one day hearing
to weigh claims of the Willys-Overland Co., Minneapolis-Moline Power Co.,
and the American Bantam Automobile Co., to use of the name "Jeep," to
identify postwar farm trucks they contemplate manufacturing.

    It was during a twilight bivouac on the south shore of Mille Lacs lake
during maneuvers at Camp Ripley in July and August of 1940 the name "Jeep"
to identify army trucks was born, O'Brien related. He had pulled a bundle
of old newspapers from under a seat and was catching up on the antics of
his favorite characters when the jeep in the Popeye strip "hit me between
the eyes," O'Brien said.

  O'Brien said he painted the name on his vehicle, drivers of other jeeps
at the camp caught the spirit of the thing and when he returned from
maneuvers three weeks later he learned the word had become commonplace.
  
  O'Brien and Sergeant Sam Love, chief mechanic of the Minnesota military
department, testified the vehicles on maneuvers at Camp Ripley were the
first of their type either had seen and they were built by the Minneapolis-
Moline Co.

  The Willys company will start its defense in the case later this summer
in New York.
                       --------------------------
<end of article>

On page 44 of [1] the following is given:

<Page is a list of names, titled "Who's Who in jeeps">
... <misc names>
HAUSMANN
Irving "Red" Hausmann was the Willys-Overland test driver who laid claim
to giving the demonstration drive AND the name jeep to Katherine Hillyer
of the Washington (DC) Daily News, in March 1941.

HILLYER
Katherine Hillyer - A staff writer for the Washington (DC) Daily News who
first used the name 'jeep' in a newspaper feature on 16 March 1941.


<References from [2], pages 159-160, quoted verbatim: >
<*start quotation*>

A LITTLE MORE ON THE NAME JEEP...

Although the volume of literature regarding the jeep continues to grow there
is no more certainty today where the name jeep came from than there was 45
years ago.

Several things are certain:

- The comic strip character JEEP made his first appearance in papers all
over America on 1 April 1936. The strip was "Popeye" by Elzie Crisler Segar.

- Haliburton Oil Well Company of Duncan, Oklahoma built a truck called Jeep
in 1938.

- Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company called their Artillery Prime
Mover a Jeep in 1940.

- Both Ford and Bantam sources take credit for the name jeep.

- Willys ended up with the trade mark "Jeep" after WWII.

- The name jeep may have come from an attempt to pronounce the letters GP,
but GP NEVER stood for "General Purpose" as so many sources state. In the
Ford Parts Numbering System, G always referred only to a unit built for
the Government and P referred only to an 80 inch wheelbase reconnaissance
car. The "General Purpose" idea refuses to die in spite of proof positive
to the contrary.

- The Most recent in a long line of owners of the "Jeep" trade name is
Jeep Eagle Corporation, a part of Chrysler Motors. Amazingly, they are now
trying to get the word jeep removed from dictionaries in an effort to
shore-up their rights to the use of the word.

<*end of quotation*>

On page 44 of [3] the following is given:
...other names were given to small quarter-ton 4x4 vehicles like "Bug",
"Midget", "Peep", "blitz Buggy", "Quad" etc.
  The frst prototype to be called a Jeep was built by Willys. Irving
Hausmann the test driver of the Toledo company who drove the prototype to
Holabird tells this story.
  "Soon after I arrived, Ford also sent their prototype to be tested so we
had to distinguish  between our vehicle and the Ford bacause I was not keen
on having any confusion between the two models. I therefore, launched the
name Jeep among the soldiers who were there at every opportunity I emphasiz-
ed the name, which soon got around."

<*also mentioned:*>
...the name Jeep was used for an autogyro tested at Wright Field and for
the prototype of the B 17 Flying Fortress tested at Langley Field in 1937.
The Dodge half-ton 4x4 was also called the Jeep in the beginning, a name
which later gave place to "Peep".


Well, that's about it. Hope that clarifies things for those people that
emailed me re my posting.

Steve Malikoff.
steven@syacus.acus.oz.au
PS. ...I love nothing better than to pull up next to a (errrrrk) Suzuki
Vitara at the lights in my 1944 GPW. ...ear-to-ear smirk of contempt as I
look at the driver of that "Inexpensive Japanese Implementation" (put as
politely as I can manage) and say "...And what's YOUR vehicle going to look
like in fifty years time?".... Hah!