What are the First and Second Worlds, then? If the First World was mainly Western Europe and America, was the Second World the Communist bloc or some intermediately industrialized group of countries?
I think that's a problem with the term itself, not with the explanation of it. I've never heard mention of a "first" or "second" world either. --KQ
Oh come on--of course you have heard the term "first world" as in
[first world nations]. --
LMS
Um, well, no. Sorry. --KQ
Well, now you have! :-) Follow that Google link. I think Lee can tell you what the name for the way the word "first world" was coined... --
LMS
I'm not sure there is a word for this case. It's kind of like a "back-formation", where an original word that looks derived or inflected causes the coinage of the presumed uninflected form, the way "pea" was coined from "pease". The term "third world" came first, then "first world" (which I have indeed heard in news reporting and such, though I've never heard "second") was coined by analogy. --LDC
I always believed the original distinction was "Old World" (Europe/Asia
?), "New World" (Americas) and "Third World" (everywhere else), and the first/second thing came (much) later, I can't back this up with evidence, though.
GWO
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