OMG is over 100 years old!

Now I’m not a fan of abbreviations, acronyms and text speak, but reading this one did make me go OMG.The first recorded use of “OMG” actually dates back well over a century now and came about a long time before texting 😮

📜 First known use

• Year: 1917
  
• Who: Lord John “Jacky” Fisher, a British admiral in the Navy
  
• To: Winston Churchill
  
• Where: A private letter during World War I
  

✍️ The exact line

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

So yes, “OMG” was literally written as “Oh! My God!” in brackets, just in case Sir Winston Churchill didn’t understand what the abbreviation meant.

🤯 Why is it surprising?

• This use of OMG predates:
  
  • The internet
    
  • Text messages
    
  • Phones as we know them
    
• It shows abbreviations for emotional emphasis were already a thing in Edwardian Britain
  

🧠 Fun takeaway

“OMG” went from:

• Naval correspondence →
  
• Teen texting →
  
• Global linguistic default