Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 10:33:05 EST

From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU

Subject: Re: VETERANS DAY SPECIAL: World War



Greg Downing and Fred Shapiro write respectively,



In 1919 they were innocent enough not to realize they would need to

number

them (that's not an original comment from me; I read or heard it

somewhere).



Also note that the OED has a citation for "World War No. 2" dated 1919.



There is, clearly, a difference between "the First World War" and "World War

I" (kings and popes tend not to call themselves Charles/Pius I either), but

on the latter point, I seem to recall mentions of World War III (vs. the

Russians, of course) being bandied about from the late 1940s and certainly

the early 1950s. --Larry