Know Your English (May 2001)

Know your English

What is the origin of ``Jeep''?

These days whenever a new vehicle is launched, it comes with a fancy name - Alto, Accent, City, Matiz, etc. The vehicle which we now call the Jeep, however did not come with a fancy name. In fact this army vehicle had no real name at all; people in the army merely referred to it as ``General Purpose Vehicle''. Since this was a fairly long name, it was abbreviated to ``GP''. From GP we get ``Jeep''. Some people argue that the word ``Jeep'' became popular because of a comic strip character who was quite popular in the days prior to World War II. The character was a tiny creature with supernatural powers and his name was Eugene the Jeep.


Source:
The Hindu daily, Tuesday, May 01, 2001