When Did "The Great War" Become "World War I"?

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

When does the Oxford English Dictionary establish the first uses of "World War I", "World War One", "First World War", etc?

World War, n.  

A war involving many nations of the world; spec. that of 1914–18 or of 1939 45.First, Second, Third World War: see the first element.

1848   People's Jrnl. 4 250/1   A war amongst the great powers is now necessarily a world-war

1864   G. Haven National Serm. (1869) Contents p.xx. (title)    The world war: aristocracy and democracy.

1889   R. B. Anderson tr. V. Rydberg Teutonic Mythol. i. xxxiv. 139   From the standpoint of Teutonic mythology it is a world war [Sw. världskrig]; and Völuspa calls it the first great war in the world—folcvig fyrst i heimi.

1900   N. Amer. Rev. Nov. 653   The South African war, following immediately upon the close of the Peace Conference at The Hague, has not yet reached its end, and already the horizon in Eastern Asia is lurid with the glare of a world-war.

World War I  n. (also World War One, World War No.1) = First World War n. at first adj., adv., and n.2 Special uses 2b. Abbreviated WWI.

1939   Time 18 Sept. 10/2   Exports of arms, munitions and related materials in World War I amounted..to only 25% of total exports to the Allies.

1947   Time & Tide 29 Nov. 1269/2   The despair and cynicism that followed what it has now become fashionable to call World War One.

First World War  n. the war which began on 28 July 1914 with hostilities between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, and ultimately involved the majority of the nations of the world, suspended by armistice on 11 Nov. 1918.Earlier called the Great War.

1889   R. B. Anderson tr. V. Rydberg Teutonic Mythol. 399   The giant-maids..took part in the first world-war on the side hostile to Odin.

1914   E. Haeckel in Indianapolis Star 27 Sept. 37/1   There is no doubt that the course and character of the feared ‘European war’..will become the first world war in the full sense of the word.]

World War II  n. (also World War Two; occasionally World War No. 2, World War Deuce) = Second World War n. at second adj. and n.2 Special uses 1; (also more generally) the second in a series of world wars (rare). Abbreviated WWII.In quot. 1919   with reference to an imagined future war arising out of the social upheaval consequent upon the First World War (1914–1918)

1919   Manch. Guardian 18 Feb. 10/1 (heading)    World War No. 2.

1939   Time 11 Sept. 38/1   Some of the diplomatic juggling which last week ended in World War II was old-fashioned international jockeying for power.

Second World War  n. the war which began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 Sept. 1939 and ultimately involved the majority of the nations of the world; hostilities ceased in Europe on 7 May 1945 and in the Far East on 12 Sept. 1945. [1930   H. G. Wells Autocracy Mr. Parham 257 (heading)    Book the Fourth: The Second World War.]

1942   Polit. Sci. Q. Sept. 321   The economic developments associated with the second World War have restored to American railroads a volume of traffic comparable to that which they handled before the great depression.

World War III  n. (also World War Three, World War No. 3) = Third World War n. at third adj.and n. Special uses 2.

1945   Duke of Bedford Let. 16 Apr. in B. Russell Autobiogr. (1969) III. i. 44   You will have to postpone your visit until the brief interlude between this war & world-war no 3.

1959   N.Z. Listener 17 Apr. 6/1   Clearly the meaning of the treaties in case of wars which can be limited is somewhat different from the meaning they have in the event of World War III.