Gunny

Put that sergeant in a bag, double time!

Today’s New York Times Spelling Bee letters:

E, I, G, N, T, Y, and center U (all words must include U)

Merriam-Webster says…

Silly little dictionary! Don’t you know gunny can’t possibly be a word if the New York Times says it ain’t?

For further fascinating facts, check out the Spelling Bee Master.

What’s your favorite dord* from today’s puzzle?

My Two Cents

I was surprised that the dictionary did not include the military definition of the word gunny among its entries. I know the official term is “gunnery sergeant”, but the informal gunny has become popular over the years. Not having much knowledge of the American military in my younger years, the first reference to the term came in my early adulthood with the 1989–1993 TV sitcom Major Dad, starring Gerald McRaney as Major John D. MacGillis, Shanna Reed as his wife Polly, and Beverly Archer as Gunnery Sergeant Alva “Gunny” Bricker. Gunny was her nickname, for goodness sake!

Hey jute

Gunny, or gunny cloth, is a term used indistinctly for material made of jute, hemp, and, nowadays, even synthetic fabrics. Our friends at Meriam-Webster explain that the word comes from the Hindi ganī, goṇī, from Sanskrit goṇī sack, probably of Dravidian origin; akin to Kanarese gōṇi, meaning “sack”.

Jute is a long, soft, shiny plant fiber produced by flowering plants in the mallow family. The fiber is collected from the “inner bark”, or bast, that surrounds the stem of two main source plants: the white jute (Corchorus capsularis) and the tossa jute (Corchorus olitorius).

Here is field of jutes…

…not to be confused with the “j-less” utes:

Jute fibers are spun into coarse, strong threads…

…from which jute rope and jute fabric are then made.

Jute is considered one of the most important vegetal fibers, second only to cotton. Because it is biodegradable, it can be used to prevent flood erosion as natural vegetation slowly establishes itself in an area. Although it’s mostly used to make sacks and gunny cloth, jute fibers are also woven into carpets, rugs, curtains, chair coverings, and even backing for linoleum.

Of course, many of us remember gunny from our childhood when we used to jump inside the sacks and try to win a prize at a party, school field event, or county fair.

Back then I had no idea sack was made of gunny or jute. I just thought it was fun!

Jackets full of metal

When I checked the term “gunnery sergeant” in the dictionary, I got this:

Again… disappointed not to see the word gunny anywhere on the page.

According to marines.com, which I think is an official website, a gunny “serves as their unit’s operations chief, working with superior officers on training, operations, and tactical advising.” The website federalpay.org add explains this:

Gunnery Sergeant is the seventh among Enlisted ranks in the USMC. It is the second Staff Non-Commissioned Officer rank, with the clearest distinction of being someone never to piss off. Marine Gunnery Sergeants are often famously portrayed in movies as Drill Instructors — with such adaptations almost always far tamer than real life. Gunnery Sergeants usually lead at the Company level, advising Captains on material and personnel readiness. They may serve on Battalion-level staffs, or may be in charge of training units or recruiting stations in the absence of an Officer to fill the billet.

The gunny’s insignia consists of two semiautomatic rifles known as M1 Garands centered vertically between three chevrons and two rockers.

Some real-life famous gunnys include William Gary Walsh, who sacrificed his own life to save the lives of fellow Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II, and Nicholas Allen Popaditch, a retired gunnery sergeant known as the “Cigar Marine”, who was an advocate for veteran’s issues and twice ran unsuccessfully for political office.

A few well-known fictional gunnys include Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS TV series NCIS, portrayed by Mark Harmon, Thomas Highway in 1986 war film Heartbreak Ridge, played by Clint Eastwood, and Emil Foley in the 1982 movie An Officer and a Gentleman, a role that made Louis Gossett, Jr. the first Black man to win an Oscar in a supporting role.

But perhaps the most famous gunny of them all is R. Lee Ermey, who served as a gunnery sergeant in both fiction and real life (he was promoted to that rank after leaving the Marines, becoming the first retiree to receive that honor).

Although he achieved fame for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film Full Metal Jacket (earning him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Ermey appeared in over 120 movies and TV shows. He played such characters as Mayor Tilman in Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in Prefontaine, Sheriff Hoyt in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, Jimmy Lee Farnsworth in Fletch Lives, a police captain in Se7en, and voiced Sarge, the plastic army men leader, in the first three films of the Toy Story franchise.

Here is a photo of gunny R. Lee Ermey smiling joyfully at the kids hopping around in a gunny in the picture I posted earlier.

Now you know. Whether you’re talking about burlap sacks or officers of the U.S. Marines, don’t use the term gunny… because the editors of the Spelling Bee decided that gunny is a dord*.

You can check out my previous entry on another dord* here:

What the heck is a dord, you ask? Here’s the answer: