The initial term used by British people for this period was "Bore War"; later, the Americanism "Phoney War" became used both sides of the Atlantic. The term "Phoney War" customarily appears using the British spelling even in North America, rather than the American "phony", although some American sources do not follow the pattern. The first known recorded use of the term in print was in September 1939, in a US newspaper which used the British spelling, although other contemporary American reports sometimes used "phony" since both spellings were in use at the time in the US. The term appeared in Great Britain by January 1940 as "phoney", the only acceptable spelling there.