Cicero – you link to an excellent summary of the evidence there – and I agree on that basis and from the references I’ve now looked up that Eugene must have been the primary reason for the application of “Jeep” to small capable military vehicles. BUT contrary to what you’ve said further up, it is clear even just from Liberman’s book that this goes further back than “the” Jeep – that other vehicles, post-Popeye but pre-M38, also bore the name. E.g. the oldest written source for the Eugene story from Life Magazine, 1941. Therein, the claim is not that the Eugene character gave his name to THE Jeep, it’s that following the cartoon’s first publication, “Jeep” was used to describe ANY “particularly satisfactory piece of equipment”. The editor of Life writes that;
The Glossary of Army Slang (1941) says;
One author claims that other manufacturers of similarly sized and purposed vehicles even complained about Willys' use of the name as a de facto trademark – though only successfully as far as the design of the vehicle was concerned – not the name. Note that the same author does also cite a WW1 origin for "Jeep" with reference to certain vehicles (including aircraft). This is supported by the Army Slang book I quote above and online sources like this one, but NOT as far back as that – only post-Eugene.
There's more in American Speech, first Vol.37, No.1 -
There's more from the same journal (Feb 1943 issue - Vol 18 No 1) which confirms the Segar "Eugene" origin. Interestingly URL="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ccwYzE4w9kIC&pg=PA119&dq=bantam+jeep+federal+trade+commission&lr="]American Notes and Queries[/URL] deride Eugene as a folk (i.e. incorrect) etymology, which when taken at face value, sans evidence, is understandable. We should bear in mind that despite the multiple sources and plausible etymology, a lot of it is just assertion and opinion. This is the hazard of the subject of course.
There's yet another confirming article in American Speech (ARMY SPEECH IN EUROPEAN THEATER, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Dec., 1946), in which the author (as others have) says that he hasn't heard of "GP". This is because (as we now know) it's not an Army designation, and never did stand for "General Purpose" - it's most likely a reference to the manufacturer's designation for "Government contract, 80in wheelbase reconnaissance car" (see here). The “GP” false etymology is itself interesting, as it would appear to go right back to the earliest days of the Jeep, if McCloskey’s letter to American Queries is anything to go by. He describes those receiving the vehicles making the assumption/speculation (or even joke) that the “GP” designation referred to the nickname. They wouldn’t recognise it as a military designation, so it makes sense they’d assume something like that (whereas it appears GP was a Ford designation – see further down). It’s possible, even likely that this may have helped the Jeep get the monopoly on its nickname in the years since then – giving it greater claim to the nickname than other vehicles (as would its iconic design, capabilities, and unique service history in a world war). This is by the by though.
Anecdotal standard of evidence aside, Eugene the Jeep makes the most sense as distinct from the parallel and/or pejorative sense of the word that Gumboot mentioned (via Hogan). Liberman makes a convincing case for the pejorative “Jeep” having little if anything to do with the term as applied to military vehicles. And supporting this absence of evidence somewhat, I could find only one civilian instance of usage (using Google, JSTOR, openlibrary.org etc) that does parallel this other form of the word:
It may be that the pejorative form of “jeep” has its own lost etymological origins the civilian sphere, whilst “Jeep” derives from what was essentially the catchphrase of the popular diminutive but magical cartoon character. So I think it’s clear that “THE” Jeep was actually part of a naming tradition as Gumboot suggests (albeit a much more recent and separate one), but one started afresh by Segar and Eugene the Jeep (post 1936), as Cicero says.
The Glossary of Army Slang (1941) says;
One author claims that other manufacturers of similarly sized and purposed vehicles even complained about Willys' use of the name as a de facto trademark – though only successfully as far as the design of the vehicle was concerned – not the name. Note that the same author does also cite a WW1 origin for "Jeep" with reference to certain vehicles (including aircraft). This is supported by the Army Slang book I quote above and online sources like this one, but NOT as far back as that – only post-Eugene.
There's more in American Speech, first Vol.37, No.1 -
There's more from the same journal (Feb 1943 issue - Vol 18 No 1) which confirms the Segar "Eugene" origin. Interestingly URL="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ccwYzE4w9kIC&pg=PA119&dq=bantam+jeep+federal+trade+commission&lr="]American Notes and Queries[/URL] deride Eugene as a folk (i.e. incorrect) etymology, which when taken at face value, sans evidence, is understandable. We should bear in mind that despite the multiple sources and plausible etymology, a lot of it is just assertion and opinion. This is the hazard of the subject of course.
There's yet another confirming article in American Speech (ARMY SPEECH IN EUROPEAN THEATER, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Dec., 1946), in which the author (as others have) says that he hasn't heard of "GP". This is because (as we now know) it's not an Army designation, and never did stand for "General Purpose" - it's most likely a reference to the manufacturer's designation for "Government contract, 80in wheelbase reconnaissance car" (see here). The “GP” false etymology is itself interesting, as it would appear to go right back to the earliest days of the Jeep, if McCloskey’s letter to American Queries is anything to go by. He describes those receiving the vehicles making the assumption/speculation (or even joke) that the “GP” designation referred to the nickname. They wouldn’t recognise it as a military designation, so it makes sense they’d assume something like that (whereas it appears GP was a Ford designation – see further down). It’s possible, even likely that this may have helped the Jeep get the monopoly on its nickname in the years since then – giving it greater claim to the nickname than other vehicles (as would its iconic design, capabilities, and unique service history in a world war). This is by the by though.
Anecdotal standard of evidence aside, Eugene the Jeep makes the most sense as distinct from the parallel and/or pejorative sense of the word that Gumboot mentioned (via Hogan). Liberman makes a convincing case for the pejorative “Jeep” having little if anything to do with the term as applied to military vehicles. And supporting this absence of evidence somewhat, I could find only one civilian instance of usage (using Google, JSTOR, openlibrary.org etc) that does parallel this other form of the word:
It may be that the pejorative form of “jeep” has its own lost etymological origins the civilian sphere, whilst “Jeep” derives from what was essentially the catchphrase of the popular diminutive but magical cartoon character. So I think it’s clear that “THE” Jeep was actually part of a naming tradition as Gumboot suggests (albeit a much more recent and separate one), but one started afresh by Segar and Eugene the Jeep (post 1936), as Cicero says.
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