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

[A. Maberry]

On Mon, 8 Oct 2001, Laurence Horn wrote:

I think I mentioned this work as well as one from 1914. I agree that World
War I is a retronym. I can't find any citations for World War I until
after WWII. There is certainly a major difference between "The first World
War" and World War One. Nothing would prevent the use of "the first World
War" even during the war. I meant to indicate that in my posting but it
was probably unclear.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

>
> 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
>