"little green men"; "flying saucer"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Thanks, Jon. The SF project had had 28 June, but I realized that several
years back, Barry Popik sent in this example, also from 27 June:

1947 _Boise (Idaho) Statesman_ 27 June, Kenneth Arnold said today he
would like to get on one of his 1200-mile-an-hour 'flying saucers', and
escape from the furor caused by his story of mysterious aircraft
flashing over southern Washington.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:50:29PM -0400, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> That crazy NewspArch!  This slightly earlier "flying saucer" just popped up:
>
> 1947 _Albuquerque Journal_ (June 27) 1: Flying Saucer Mystery Deepens
> as Eyewitness Descriptions Increase.
>
> This too is an AP dispatch. The term does not appear in the body of the article.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      "little green men"; "flying saucer"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > OED has nothing before 1961. Tsk.
> >
> > GB affords numerous 19th C. British exx. referring to trolls, elves,
> > and the like.  The following U.S. cites show too that it was used to
> > refer to imaginary figures supposedly seen in delirium tremens.
> >
> > The 1948 is the earliest ex. that refers to denizens of outer space
> > and, by implication, spacemen in saucers. It suggests that still
> > earlier exx. may exist in comic books and pulp magazines.
> >
> >
> > 1945 _San Antonio Light_ (Aug. 5) 57 [NewspArch.]: Pink elephants and
> > "little green men" are often seen around by those who hit the bottle
> > too often and too hard.
> >
> > 1946 _Independent Record_ (Helena, Mont.) (June 24) 4 [ibid]: [L]ittle
> > green men...anonymous gnomes.
> >
> > 1947 _Daily Register_ (Harrisburg, Ill.) (June 6) 8 [ibid.]: Little
> > green men do not exist solely in nightmares. According to the
> > Encyclopaedia Britannica, the complexions of the Punans, natives of
> > Borneo [etc.].
> >
> > 1947 _San Antonio Express_ (June 25) 6 [ibid.]: She could babble of
> > nothing but the fairies and little green men. [Though the term "flying
> > saucer" was coined within a few days of this, the reference here is to
> > elf-like beings. -JL]
> >
> > 1948 Mary Hill in _The Prospector_ (El Paso, Tex.) (Feb. 21) 2
> > [ibid.]: I'm afraid I'll never take a ride on a high-powered atomic
> > space ship and tour the Milky Way. It's  pity, because a lifetime of
> > reading funny books has me completely prepared to meet little green
> > men, life forms which exist on silicon, or entities of pure thought.
> >
> > 1953 _Newport [R.I.] Daily News_ (Nov. 27) 8 [ibid.]: [A]ny time now
> > we may expect to see a herd of pink elephants, and read that a flock
> > of flying saucers have landed in Times Square, N.Y., with little green
> > men popping out wanting to see the sights of Manhattan.
> >
> > Etc., etc.
> >
> >
> > And an antedating, by about a week, of "flying saucer":
> >
> > 1947 _Dixon [Ill.] Eve. Telegraph_ (June 30) 1 [ibid.]: "Flying
> > Saucer" Controversy Is Continued; New Witnesses Report. Seattle,
> > Wash., June 30.- (AP) - The "flying saucer" controversy continued
> > today with eyewitness converts almost as numerous as the announced
> > skeptics.
> >
> > [The seminal "flying saucer" report was made on June 24. This AP
> > dispatch is the earliest printed ex. I find. - JL]
> >
> > JL
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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