Why was World War I called The Great War?

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This is the thread where I recommend "Brown Harvest"

...Please turn to the next thread to see the answer.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 09:05 (nineteen years ago)

"but there's a baby on the hood of his car, which should be really hot"

What does it say about me that, when I first read this, I thought it meant he'd hit a baby on the way over and it was wedged the front of his car and would be really hot if he's actually driven all that way?

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 09:45 (nineteen years ago)

What the hell is Encyclopedia Brown?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 10:15 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and this thread wasn't supposed to be trolling, just a bit of bad academic humour.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 10:16 (nineteen years ago)

OK here's a poser. What did they call World War 2 before such a moniker came in?

I know this because I read it in one of Campbell's old Pears Cyclopedias. I didn't know it beforehand. In fact, it had never occured to me. I would be rubbish at being an ace attorney with the wildest cross-examining skills in town if I couldn't even wonder about THAT contradiction...

― Bhumibol Adulyadej (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 10:19 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and this thread wasn't supposed to be trolling, just a bit of bad academic humour.

I see.

a friend claims to have once been in a history tutorial where someone in all seriousness asked from where Kings and Queens got the numbers after their names.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

OK here's a poser. What did they call World War 2 before such a moniker came in?
I know this because I read it in one of Campbell's old Pears Cyclopedias. I didn't know it beforehand. In fact, it had never occured to me. I would be rubbish at being an ace attorney with the wildest cross-examining skills in town if I couldn't even wonder about THAT contradiction...

-- Bhumibol Adulyadej (starrysdarkmaterial...), November 14th, 2006.

i'm being thick, i don't get you here. i don't know when that name came in, though it's possible it came in before the war started, given that everyone knew it was going to. but they could have got by calling it just 'the war'; as they did with the first one quite often.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

Well, Enrique, when hostilities started, it wasn't a "world war", was it? And I guess they hoped it wouldn't be the second one quite strongly! What were they calling it in the run up to Sep 1939 and just after the UK declaration at least?

Hint: it wasn't WWII, and it was more than just 'the war'!

I am surprised not more people know this - I felt really thick when I realised I didn't know.

― Bhumibol Adulyadej (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

"The OED reports the first use of "Second World War" was by novelist H.G. Wells in 1930, although it may well have been used earlier.[17] The term was immediately used when war was declared; for example, the September 3, 1939, issue of the Canadian newspaper, The Calgary Herald."

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

Well, Enrique, when hostilities started, it wasn't a "world war", was it?

yeahbut isn't it only later convention that says 01/09/39 is when 'it' started anyway? japan had been getting into it with china (and therefore teh brits) way before then; and even as of that date the ussr was involved.

and who can forget the battle of the river plate?

it only needed US involvement to make it as worldly as ww1.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

Well, Enrique, when hostilities started, it wasn't a "world war", was it?

given that the initial combatants included the British and French empires, it would seem not inappropriate to call it a world conflict.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:39 (nineteen years ago)

A has a Pears encyclopedia from around 1938 so i will ask her what they were calling the enusing conflict at that point.

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:39 (nineteen years ago)

What were they calling it in the run up to Sep 1939 and just after the UK declaration at least?

'operation polish storm'

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:39 (nineteen years ago)

A has a Pears encyclopedia from around 1938

This is cheating as it's the same source where Starry's got her info from!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:45 (nineteen years ago)

but if that were so, starry would know the answer to her question.

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

A says they called it the 'War on something'.

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

hahahaha

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

Starry does know! I know this because I read it in one of Campbell's old Pears Cyclopedias.

I don't. Someone please tell me.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:49 (nineteen years ago)

sorry, I misread stuff.

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:55 (nineteen years ago)

Anyway, go and read Lixi's book and tell us!

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:04 (nineteen years ago)

some batshit rule about how women always get the seat facing the room, and men sit across from them

that's not batshit, it's an iron law.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:09 (nineteen years ago)

I had hoped that the batshit rule might explain how they can go upside down without crapping all over themselves.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

i think andrew is right. it would be cheating for me to give the answer.

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

the brits called it the PHONEY WAR to start with (bcz nothing was happening yet)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

OK OK!

It was called: THE WAR OF ATTRITION!

So there you go! Neener neener neeener. And they would have called it SOMETHING before the Brit/Fr empires got involved in 39 as PROVEN by the Pears Cyclopaedic evidence, your Honour!

The defense rests! SUSTAINED!

― Bhumibol Adulyadej (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

oh i thought it was 'the war against aggression'!

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

fought mostly in the war room

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Attrition

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

Oh well! There you go! You are right Steve!

I guess I was too distracted by the giant sack of DAIM bars whilst I was reading that Pears Cyclopaedia - damn my eyes!

― Bhumibol Adulyadej (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

i am very doubtful about this claim. a 'war of attrition' is a standard bit of language. why on earth would they call the just declared, or soon to be declared, war that?

need more than 1x source to believe it.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

we have three sources! starry, stevem and some pears

however my answer is correct but the pears were too PC to admit it

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

more importantly: why are pears cyclopedias called "cyclopedias"?

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:14 (nineteen years ago)

i wonder if they called it 'the phoney war' in germany?

like: let's get it on already.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

surely they were already gettin busy in like czecho etc?

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

it was all action the first half of september 1939, but i think they took it down a notch till -- norway? april 1940.

they did czechoslovakia in march '39 i think.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:19 (nineteen years ago)

that said: i think there was 'war' in colonial africa in 1939.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

In France it's called "la guerre de quarante"

― Revivalist (Revivalist), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

Wikipedia reckons it was also known as the Bore War till it got started in earnest.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

it certainly was.

it's an interesting question. i bet 'the falklands war' was always called that. and iirc 'the gulf war'. but what of our present wars. it's probably called 'the iraq war', but what about the war in afghanistan? doesn't have a real name.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

'war on terror'

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

Drôle de guerre

I had a history teacher, echoing Churchill, who claimed that the Seven Years War (French & Indian War) was the first world war inasmuch as the hostilities occurred in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, North America, the Carribean and India.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

I kinda like the "sitzkrieg" nickname for the "Phoney War."

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

that has to be more 'worldy' than ww1 innit.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

Not really. Almost all the combatants in the Seven Years War were European powers or their colonies, and WWI , while it was mostly fought in Europe and the Middle East nonetheless saw hostilities in Africa and the Pacific and there were numerous non-European allies from around the globe.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

was there fighting in the pacific? (this is a big knowledge gap!)

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

yes!

didn't know any of this

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

nah i mean in ww1. i know even less about the seven years war. (whaddayawantfromme, i only got a ba in history.)

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:52 (nineteen years ago)

Let's just hope future historians don't refer to "World War III, known at first as War on Terror".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, New Zealand and Japan (and others?) pilched Germany's Far-East possessions.

xpost

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

xpost er you were asking about ww1 weren't you

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

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So why is Theresa May in London today?

Putin RSVP'd first is my punt tbh

― nashwan, Sunday, 11 November 2018 17:04 (seven years ago)

"Remembrance Day: In pictures"

meh, no decent Up The Arse Corner contenders this year.

― calzino, Sunday, 11 November 2018 17:17 (seven years ago)

I'd have let it slide if they had invaded England and done the same to Middlesbrough

how would we tell?

― two Barongs don't make a Wight (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 11 November 2018 17:22 (seven years ago)

no such thing as "uninhabitable toxic wasteland" in Real England!

― calzino, Sunday, 11 November 2018 17:27 (seven years ago)

so this Peter Jackson doc is on bbc2 tonight and its just mindblowing seeing all this footage in high-ish def colour.

― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Sunday, 11 November 2018 22:31 (seven years ago)

three weeks pass...

how is that P-Jax doc? I saw a trailer and it is really something else seeing the film transformed in this manner, hoping it's worth a view and isn't just a gimmick on which to hinge a thinly sketched statement.

― omar little, Wednesday, 5 December 2018 01:36 (seven years ago)

I thought it was very bland + heavily sentimentalised Our Boys type claptrap, and aside from the old movie stock tarted up by CGI - with absolutely nothing interesting to say and with no coherent narrative. Although I'm sure it made Tommy Robinson cry into his beer. Just basically the type of shite you'd see playing on one of the screens at the imperial war museum.

― calzino, Wednesday, 5 December 2018 10:06 (seven years ago)

Saw most of The Long Shadow repeated on BBC4 the last few weeks. That was interesting and challenging even when I was sceptical of some of the interpretations he made.

― biliares now living will never buey (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 5 December 2018 12:36 (seven years ago)

I want a full book about this story.

I want a movie too. I want the whole damn thing.

a gay love story of the 1st world war’s year.

[thread by @guillemclua im just a translator]. pic.twitter.com/I3CkgKd1EO
— maaayyy. (@brendonsexual) December 7, 2018

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 00:56 (seven years ago)

Well, the chances are probably quite high..

https://guillemclua.com/comunicado-sobre-el-hilo-de-twitter-emilyxaver/

― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 01:37 (seven years ago)

Rather!

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 01:50 (seven years ago)

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