On September 9, 1917, British admiral John “Jacky” Fisher wrote to Winston Churchill and used an expression that looks at home in a text message: “O.M.G.” It is the earliest recorded example of the abbreviation, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Fisher even spelled out what he meant: “Oh! My God!”
An exclamation in a wartime letter
Churchill was Britain’s minister of munitions at the time. Fisher’s letter discussed naval affairs, then turned to a rumored new order of knighthood. With characteristic enthusiasm, he urged that the honor be bestowed on the Admiralty. His “O.M.G.” sat in the middle of that appeal, not in a casual note about weekend plans. The Oxford English Dictionary’s account of the letter describes Fisher’s closing tone as sarcastic.
The punctuation is part of the charm. Fisher wrote O.M.G., with periods between the letters, and explained it in parentheses. Readers did not have to guess what the unfamiliar shorthand meant. The letter later appeared in his 1919 memoir Memories, preserving an example written decades before email, instant messaging, or mobile phones.
What “earliest recorded” really means
The distinction matters: Fisher’s letter is the oldest example documented by dictionary researchers, not proof that he invented the abbreviation or that nobody used it earlier. An older example could still turn up in another letter or publication.
Nor does the letter show that “OMG” spread directly from Fisher to today’s texters. What it does show is that the impulse to shorten an emphatic phrase predates digital communication. That makes this piece of language history more surprising than a claim that texting invented it. For another unexpected set of initials, read the story behind Yahoo’s acronym.