When did the 1914-18 War become "World War I"?

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:50 AM -0700 10/8/01, FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:
>was a World War II, people wouldn't have known the Great War of 1914-1918 was
>going to be just the first of at least two, and wouldn't have called it World
>War I.
>
>Well, people were smarter then than we give them credit.  A few
>months ago I was browsing in the military section of a used
>bookstore and came across a book called "The First World
>War"--published in the EARLY 1930's.  Unfortunately, I do not
>remember the exact year nor the author.
>Fritz Juengling


Would it have been this one, which I think was mentioned earlier in
this thread?

The first world war ; a photographic history, edited with
captions and an introduction by Laurence Stallings.
Published:   New York, Simon and Schuster, 1933.


I think that this DESCRIPTION is still different from "World War I"
as a NAME; the concept of a conflict so global that for the first
time it could be called a "world war" isn't quite the same time as
envisioning a series of "World War n" events, patterned after Charles
I (was he Charles I at the time?), Charles II, etc.  I suspect that
"World War I" as such would only have arisen as a retronym (like "Ken
Griffey Senior") after WWII was so dubbed.

larry