# Early use of the phrase 'World War I' (and equivalents) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654 "2014-05-17T20:57:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/21 "2014-05-19T01:27:15Z")
I’ve referred to it as “The War To End All Wars”, but I can be a sardonic son of a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/22 "2014-05-19T13:24:16Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I have an OED > … You must have an old edition. This is from the latest online edition. > [@](#): > > A war involving many nations of the world; spec. that of 1914–18 or of 1939–45.First, Second, Third World War: see the first element. > > 1848 People’s Jrnl. 4 250/1 A war amongst the great powers is now necessarily a world-war. > 1864 G. Haven National Serm. (1869) Contents p.xx. (title) The world war: aristocracy and democracy. > 1889 R. B. Anderson tr. V. Rydberg Teutonic Mythol. i. xxxiv. 139 From the standpoint of Teutonic mythology it is a world war [Sw. världskrig]; and Völuspa calls it the first great war in the world—folcvig fyrst i heimi. > 1900 N. Amer. Rev. Nov. 653 The South African war, following immediately upon the close of the Peace Conference at The Hague, has not yet reached its end, and already the horizon in Eastern Asia is lurid with the glare of a world-war. > 1914 B. Vaughan What of To-day? xii. 103 What the South African War failed to teach I really believe this world-war will bring home to us. > 1921 A. Huxley Crome Yellow ix. 82 Armageddon, that world war with which the Second Coming is to be so closely associated. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/23 "2014-05-19T16:28:52Z")
> [@OED](#): > > 1921 A. Huxley Crome Yellow ix. 82 Armageddon, that world war with which the Second Coming is to be so closely associated. A. Huxley Crome Yellow. There’s the archetypal upper-class British name. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/24 "2014-05-19T20:57:04Z")
During WWI, there was some references to the conflict as “War of the Nations” (an encyclopedia yearbook from 1917 I recently read used this). But it’s obvious “World War” and “Great War” were far more cumbersome and won out. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/25 "2014-05-19T21:53:00Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > During WWI, there was some references to the conflict as “War of the Nations” (an encyclopedia yearbook from 1917 I recently read used this). But it’s obvious “World War” and “Great War” were far more cumbersome and won out. I obviously meant less cumbersome. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/26 "2014-05-21T07:59:49Z")
Spam reported ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/27 "2014-05-21T11:49:42Z")
I always found it remarkable that Winston Churchill called the French and Indian War “the first world war”. I don’t know the original source, but the quote is frequently mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/28 "2014-05-21T12:36:50Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > During WWI, there was some references to the conflict as “War of the Nations” (an encyclopedia yearbook from 1917 I recently read used this). But it’s obvious “World War” and “Great War” were far more cumbersome and won out. I’ve also seen “The Kaiser’s War” (and for WWII “The Hitlerite War”) ---
**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:** [September 11, 2023, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/29 "2023-09-11T23:33:43Z")
Nine years later I have come across a very interesting quote: > The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Mr. Bernard M. Baruch, a United States Civilian, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, in the organization and administration of the War Industries Board and in the coordination of allied purchases in the United States. By establishing a broad and comprehensive policy for the supervision and control of the raw materials, manufacturing facilities, and distribution of the products of industry, he stimulated the production of war supplies, coordinated the needs of the military service and the civilian population, and contributed alike to the completeness and speed of the mobilization and equipment of the military forces and the continuity of their supply. War Department, General Orders No. 15 (1921) As you can see, the order is dated 1921. Unfortunately no reference is given. (It’s from a Wiki article I was reading on [Bernard Baruch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch)). If the citation above can be believed, it is irrefutable proof that the specific phrase “World War I” occurred well before there had been a second World War. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/30 "2023-09-12T09:07:26Z")
This debate reminds me of “The Great Storm” sketch in _The Vicar of Dibley_ https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=300&width=400&href=https://www.facebook.com/HMCGAngusDundee/videos/the-great-storm-vicar-of-dibley/2559997740938166/ ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/31 "2023-09-12T09:46:32Z")
But how likely is it that a diary entry of a private discussion between two otherwise not very notable officers determined how history would call the war? I think it’s very likely that several people, independently of each other, came up with that term, and that this particular discussion had no effect on common usage. By the way, there are historians who think that the Seven Years’ War should be called a world war (and then arguably the first one), since it was fought on several continents. But this did not become common usage, and the various theatres of the Seven Years’ War are instead known under separate names, such as the French and Indian War in North America. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654/32 "2023-09-12T10:09:51Z")
> A. Huxley Crome Yellow. There’s the archetypal upper-class British name. 😉 _[Crome Yellow](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crome_Yellow)_ is a book by Aldous Huxley (though granted, just Aldous Huxley is posh enough - understandable, given his ancestry and relatives). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-use-of-the-phrase-world-war-i-and-equivalents/688654.md?page=1)