Etymology

cold war

Today it means: A period of hostile relations between rivals where direct open warfare between them is largely undesired and avoided; especially, either the Cold War or Cold War II. Full definition →

First used 1945
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cold war · noun1

Diachronically, back-formation from Cold War: a common noun back-formed from the proper noun naming the first post–WWII instance of the concept; synchronically, cold + war.

Cold War · proper noun2

Coined by American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in 1947, in a speech he wrote for Bernard Baruch (1870–1965), an American financier and adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1945 A period of hostile relations between rivals where direct open warfare between them is largely undesired and avoided; especially, either the Cold War or Cold War II.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.