[Ads-l] Antedating of "Cold War" in a General Sense

[Jonathan Lighter]

My SWAG is that the Herald was referring to sanctions taken by the League
against Italy in 1935-36. They were too weak to be effective.

A "cold war." in this case, would then be something like "economic warfare."

JL

On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 6:52 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> The OED's first use for "cold war" is dated 1945.  Searches of newspapers
> and periodicals make it clear that there was earlier usage in a general
> sense, referring to a conflict fought by nonmilitary means rather than to
> the specific sense of a struggle between the United States and the Soviet
> Union.  I have previously traced this general usage back to the Nation in
> 1938, but here is probably an earlier one (I say "probably" because the
> context of the citation is pretty confusing):
>
>
> 1936 _Sydney Morning Herald_ 2 July 10/3 (Newspapers.com)  [It is
> unlikely] that the "52 nations" will, in the League cause now, undertake
> against Italy that "cold war" which they refused to undertake earlier.
>
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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