London, Aug 7 (IANS) It's one of the most common phrases among British and US teenagers today, but it seems O.M.G. (Oh! My! God!) was first used almost 100 years ago, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

British Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher first penned the acronym in a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917. He used it in a letter to the famous wartime prime minister about some utterly (upsetting) World War I newspaper headlines.

He wrote: I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis - O.M.G (Oh! My! God!) - Shower it on the Admiralty!!

The phrase, added to the Oxford English Dictionary last year, is the colloquial abbreviation for Oh My God, generally used in conversations to express surprise, embarrassment, excitement and disgust, according to the Urban Dictionary.

It's normally associated with teenage girls and the phrase was thought to have originated from online chat rooms, most commonly used in online games, web chats and in text messages.