# Before WWII, what was WWI known as in non-English-speaking countries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220 "2015-12-23T21:54:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/1 "2015-12-23T21:54:49Z")
In English-speaking countries between 1919 and 1939, it seems as if “The Great War” and “The War to End All Wars” were the most common phrases used to denote what we now know as World War I. During that same interval, what was it known as in non-English-speaking countries? Two posters in [this thread from Quora](https://www.quora.com/What-was-WWI-called-before-WWII) address the question but I have no idea whether their claims are accurate. And, in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260148), from a place called The Straight Dope, a couple of claims are made regarding the German and “Russian” equivalents. Was ‘The Great War’ (i.e. its literally translated equivalent) used pretty much around the globe? Or did some countries have their own unique phrase for it? ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/2 "2015-12-23T22:22:53Z")
In German, I have not encountered references to a phrase “der große Krieg” which would be the literal translation of “the Great War”. The references that I encountered in contemporary texts (in WWI and the 1920s) were to _ **der Krieg** _ (the war - the last war Germany was involved in was more than four decades back and was soon eclipsed in its impact by WWI) - and specificially _ **der Weltkrieg** _ (the world war" - see [Google NGram](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=weltkrieg&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=20&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CWeltkrieg%3B%2Cc0) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/3 "2015-12-24T00:05:07Z")
The term in French was “La Grande Guerre.” See the entry in the French Wikipedia: “La _Grande Guerre_ est un nom donné, notamment jusque dans les années 1940s, à la Première Guerre Mondiale … et avant encore cela, La _Grande Guerre_ désignait l’ensemble des guerres napoléoniennes” (“La _Great War_ is the name given, just up until the 1940s, to the First World War … and before that, the _Great War_ designated the series of Napoleonic Wars.”) > **[Grande Guerre (homonymie)](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Guerre_(homonymie))** > > Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. > Par ordre chronologique, ce sont : ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/4 "2015-12-24T05:25:28Z")
H.G. Wells and Woodrow Wilson had a distinct formulation: [The war to end war - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_war_to_end_war) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/5 "2015-12-24T06:31:37Z")
In Urdu the term for World War I was _Jang-e-Azeem_ (literally the Great War). After the second go about, the first world war began to be known as “_Pheli Jang-e-Azeem_” i.e “the First Great War” and 1939-45 as _Doosri Jang-e-Azeem_ you guessed it, “the Second Great War” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/6 "2015-12-24T11:40:37Z")
In Spanish and Catalan I’ve heard _Gran Guerra_ (the most common one), _Gran Guerra Europea_ and _Guerra Europea_ (coincidental spellings, slightly different pronunciations). Great War, Great European War, European War. Uncle Google finds references to WWII that also call it _Gran Guerra Europea_ (mostly from sites about History), but I don’t recall hearing that one in the wild for the Second; some of those same sites use _Guerra Europea_ to refer to the first stages of WWII. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/7 "2015-12-24T16:34:42Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > In Spanish and Catalan I’ve heard _Gran Guerra_ (the most common one), _Gran Guerra Europea_ and _Guerra Europea_ (coincidental spellings, slightly different pronunciations). Great War, Great _ **European** _ War, European War. > > Uncle Google finds references to WWII that also call it _Gran Guerra Europea_ (mostly from sites about History), but I don’t recall hearing that one in the wild for the Second; some of those same sites use _Guerra Europea_ to refer to the first stages of WWII. Emphasis supplied. So out of curiosity what is the War in the Far East called? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/8 "2015-12-24T16:41:50Z")
Which of them? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/9 "2015-12-24T16:50:36Z")
The second world war in the Far East. Or do Spanish books say that the Guerra Europea ended with the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Japan? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-wwii-what-was-wwi-known-as-in-non-english-speaking-countries/741220/10 "2015-12-24T17:00:19Z")
Ehrm… _Guerra Europea_ refers either to WWI or to the part of WWII before Pearl Harbor. Mostly to the first. The part of WWII involving the Japanese is the _Guerra en el Pacífico_ part of _la Segunda Guerra Mundial_.