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