When Humvee became Hummer

[KitchenWitch]

do you think they planned to co-opt the euphemism?

[Huckebein the Raven]

1. Isn't Humvee a military acronym for the original vehicle ?

I think GM bought the company that made the original Hummer

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. HMMWV...

Highly Mobile Mechanised Wheeled Vehicle, or some such nonsense...the military loves its acronyms...

[Technowitch]

2. Nah, it's just that soldiers do what they've always done

...and that's create phrases and acronyms, and then shorten those as needed.

We got "Jeep" out of GP - namely the General Purpose vehicle of WW2.

Humvee came from HMMWV - High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.

And the Pentagon is a building with four walls and a spare, that great monument to military thinking.

Ooops, sorry, channeled Col. Sherman T. Potter for a second there. ;)

[KitchenWitch]

3. Col. Sherman T. Potter is not a bad one to channel

Better than channeling Lt. Col. Oliver North.

[lenidog]

4. Nope the acronym came first and soldier did what they always do

and call it by their own names. Which sometimes become so prevalent they end up becoming the official designation.