"OMG" First Used in 1917 Letter

Long before the rapid-fire exchanges of online chat and text messages made abbreviations a staple of everyday communication, a surprising linguistic gem emerged from a bygone era. In 1917, amidst the tumultuous backdrop of World War I, a letter penned to the future Prime Minister Winston Churchill contained an early, albeit isolated, instance of a phrase now synonymous with digital expression. This correspondence wasn't from a teenager, but from a seventy-six-year-old British Admiral, John Arbuthnot Fisher, offering a fascinating glimpse into the playful side of language even in formal settings.

Admiral Fisher, a formidable and innovative figure in the Royal Navy, was known for his colorful language and flamboyant writing style. In his letter to Churchill, then Minister of Munitions, Fisher used "O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)" to express a sarcastic sentiment about a proposed new order of knighthood, suggesting it be "showered on the Admiralty." While Fisher and Churchill shared a complex relationship, marked by both collaboration and significant disagreements, this particular use of "OMG" was a personal flourish that did not immediately enter wider public use.

Indeed, the term "acronym" itself wouldn't even be coined until 1943, and the widespread adoption of initialisms and abbreviations as common linguistic tools largely accelerated during and after World War II, driven by the need for concise communication in military and technical fields. Fisher's early "OMG" remained an obscure curiosity for nearly a century until lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary unearthed it in 2011. It wasn't until the advent of the internet and mobile phones in the 1990s that "OMG" truly exploded in popularity, becoming the ubiquitous expression of surprise and disbelief we recognize today, decades after its initial, rather aristocratic, appearance.