High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Swiss Army knife (French: Couteau suisse, German: Schweizer Offiziersmesser: "Swiss officer`s knife", Italian: Coltellino svizzero) is a brand of pocket knife or multi-tool manufactured by Victorinox AG and Wenger SA. The term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by US soldiers after World War II due to the difficulty they had in pronouncing the German name.