 There are other pre-1970s reports of circular formations, especially in Australia and Canada, but they were always simple circles, which could have been caused by whirlwinds.In "Fortean Times" David Wood reported that in 1940 he had already made crop circles near Gloucestershire using ropes.In 1997, the "Oxford English Dictionary" recorded the earliest usage of the term "crop circles" in a 1988 issue of "Journal of Meteorology", referring to a BBC film.