GI (military)

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For other uses of GI, see GI

GI or G.I. is a term describing a member of the US armed forces or an item of their equipment. It may be used as an adjective or as a noun. The term is often thought to be an initialism of "Government Issue" but the origin of the term is in fact galvanized iron after the letters "GI" that used to denote equipment such as metal trash cans made from it in U.S. Army inventories and supply records. ^[1]^[2] During World War I, US soldiers sardonically referred to incoming German artillery shells as "GI cans". During World War I it was somehow assumed that GI stood for Government Issue and the term was applied to all military equipment and the soldiers themselves. The term reached even farther use as its usage spread with the American troops during World War II.

Alternative interpretations include General Issue, General Infantry, General Inspector, Ground Infantry, General Invasion, Government Inductee, and Gastrointestinal (a reference to problems claimed to come from the poor quality of the food the army provided its soldiers, probably a joke).