At what point in the wars, did we start calling it the "World War" and "World War II"?

by montrealite

How many countries must be "at war" simultaneously for it to be called a World War? We're seeing more countries, including China recently, declare war against Daesh. I'm curious about how loose or strict the definition of a "world war" is, and when people started calling the World Wars, "World Wars."

Thanks!

CanadianHistorian

Hey I see no one has replied to this. I don't really have an answer, but you can see a general trend by using Google's Ngram viewer, which tracks the popularity of words/terms. Check out the waning and growing popularity of First World War vs Great War vs Second World War and World War.