The first known use of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill.

OMG on notepad

Winston Churchill’s remarkable life was filled with genuine “OMG” moments, from withstanding the disastrous Gallipoli campaign during the First World War to leading Britain through World War II as prime minister. Churchill held a front-row seat to many history-defining moments, even including the little-known origin of the term “OMG” itself.

The expression “OMG,” an acronym for “oh my god,” became popular as early internet lingo during the 1990s. But the first known use of the acronym actually dates back to a letter written to Churchill in 1917, while he was serving as first lord of the admiralty in the British navy. The letter was written by John Arbuthnot Fisher, who, as first sea lord (the navy’s highest ranking officer), often quarreled with Churchill. In the 1917 missive, Fisher wrote, “I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis [table] — O.M.G. (Oh! My God!) — Shower it on the Admiralty!!” Sadly for the linguistically hip Fisher, neither Churchill, the navy, nor the British people adopted his clever quip. It wasn’t until the arrival of the internet age some 70 years later that the “OMG” acronym exploded in popularity.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

“LOL” originally meant “little old lady.”

Language evolves over time, and the same can be said of time-saving acronyms, including the ubiquitous “LOL” (most commonly understood to mean “laugh out loud”). The acronym is now a go-to response when a joke, meme, or photo elicits some measure of mirth (though many keep “ROFL” in their back pocket for those truly hilarious moments). But the oldest use of “LOL” actually dates back to the 1960s and had a very different meaning: Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Herb Caen used the acronym in his book Only in San Francisco to mean “little old lady.” In the book, Caen wrote, “A traffic officer bellowed at an LOL who didn’t seem to know which way to turn her car.” Caen, who spent most of his career at the San Francisco Chronicle, also coined the term “beatnik,” referring to the counterculture inspired by Beat Generation writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.