Wwi

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Used as an abbreviation for the global conflict from 1914 to 1918 ; commonly referring to the First World War ; often designating events, people, or circumstances connected to the major early twentieth-century war
2. Serving as a shortened form for the massive 1914–1918 international war ; indicating the original world-spanning conflict ; frequently marking relevance to the epoch-making military struggle of the early 1900s
3. An acronym denoting the 1914–1918 worldwide military confrontation ; representing the inaugural great war of the twentieth century ; used to classify matters pertaining to the first modern world conflict

Etymology: The abbreviation "WWI" is simply shorthand for "World War I," and its history is that of the war's name rather than of any single word. The conflict was not called the First World War while it was being fought. Contemporaries used names such as "the Great War," and the phrase "World War" itself only became common after 1939, when a second global conflict made a numbering necessary. Retrospective use of "First World War" appeared in the early 1940s, and the Roman numeral form followed the same logic, marking the war as the earlier of two. The abbreviation "WWI" is an even later convenience, a product of the same numbering habit, and it became standard in print and speech as the second war cast its shadow back over the first. Its components are the "W" of "world" and the Roman numeral "I," neither of which carries any etymological surprise.

Synonyms: World War I, First World War, Great War