Appeals News: Words from the First World War

To commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War (1914–18), the OED is revising a set of vocabulary related to or coined during the war. Part of the revision process involves searching for earlier or additional evidence, and for this we need your help. Our first quotations are often from newspapers and magazines, and we know that there may well be earlier evidence in less-easily-accessible sources such as letters, diaries, and government records, many of which are now being made available in digital form for the first time.

A soldier’s diary entry or letter to family at home may contain an earlier reference to a word like ‘demob’ or ‘shell shock’. Can you help us find it?

The full list of WWI Appeals is here.

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