Antedating of "Third World"

[Fred Shapiro]

The OED's first cite for the English phrase "Third World" is dated 1963.
The following ProQuest antedating has been posted by Ben Zimmer on
alt.usage.english:

1958 _Wash. Post_ 29 Jan. A18  The Third World. ... Following the war ...
many people began to look upon the world as divided into two parts -- the
Communist and the Western world.  So intense was our concentration on this
struggle that many of us failed to comprehend that a new third world had
been born. ...  This new world was born in Asia, in Africa, in the Near
East out of old colonial empires. ... Today, this third world challenges
our leadership, our energies, our own aspirations.  In this third world
arena, the great struggle for freedom and peace in our time is being
waged.

Zimmer also gives an antedating of "Second World" (OED 1974):

1966 _N.Y. Times_ 31 Aug. 42  Leaders and intellectuals in many countries
are also strongly attracted to the ideology of the Socialist or Communist
countries -- the so-called "Second World."

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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