OMG was first used 100 years ago in a letter to Winston Churchill

We use this abbreviation every day, but do you know when it was first used? It turns out it’s not as old as the word “twitter”.

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the earliest known use of OMG (Oh My God) is in a letter written in 1917 by Lord Fisher to Winston Churchill.

In September 1917, Churchill was the Minister of Munitions. In the letter, Lord Fisher, a former Admiral of the Fleet, suggested that the British should send a fleet to spoil the German landing operation near Tallinn (historically known as Reval).

Here is the full text of the letter:

MY DEAR WINSTON,

I am here for a few days longer before rejoining my “Wise men” at Victory House—

“The World forgetting,
By the World forgot!”

but some Headlines in the newspapers have utterly upset me! Terrible!!

“The German Fleet to assist the Land operations in the Baltic.”

“Landing the German Army South of Reval.”

We are five times stronger at Sea than our enemies and here is a small Fleet that we could gobble up in a few minutes playing the great vital Sea part of landing an Army in the enemies’ rear and probably capturing the Russian Capital by Sea!

This is “Holding the ring” with a vengeance!

Are we really incapable of a big Enterprise?

I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty!!

Yours,

Fisher

9/9/17

Images: LanguageTool, Smithsonian Magazine