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

Aug 07, 2012 |

London

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The popular phrase OMG, colloquial abbreviation for 'Oh My God' does not have its origins in modern-day chatrooms but was first used in 1917 in a letter to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

It has emerged that the British admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher first penned the acronym in a letter to Churchill as far back as 1917, the Daily Mail reported.

Lord 'Jacky' Fisher, as he was known, used it in a letter to Churchill before he became Prime Minister. The letter mentioned "utterly upsetting" World War I newspaper headlines.

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

Lord Fisher began his career during the Crimean War and ended it during the First World War. The phrase OMG, added to the Oxford English Dictionary last year, is generally used in conversations to express surprise, embarrassment, excitement and disgust, according to the Urban Dictionary.

However, OMG is not the first modern day phrase which seems to have surprising historic routes. LOL, now defined as 'laughing out loud', was first used in 1960 to denote 'little old lady'.

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