OMG! First Use of Abbreviation Found in a 1917 Letter to Winston Churchill

This one’s for all you amateur internet archaeologists out there: The first recorded use of the ubiquitous texting abbreviation OMG wasn’t uttered by a precocious tween in the 1990s, but by one Lord Fisher in a letter to none other than Winston Churchill.

John Fisher, known as “Jacky,” was an admiral and naval innovator who served as head of the British Navy during World War I, but resigned his post in 1915 after a falling out with Churchill over the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. While his naval career was over by the time he wrote his “dear Winston” the letter in 1917, one can only imagine he had become acclimated to speaking in coded messages and thus his ingenious use of OMG, which he helpfully explained to Churchill was an abbreviation for Oh! My God! Now if he could just explain what “Shower it on the Admiralty” means.

Here’s the letter: