"little green men"; "flying saucer"

Thu Oct 20 12:45:18 UTC 2011

Another significant ex.:

1951 _Albuquerque Tribune_ (Aug. 24) 14 [NewspArch]: The Case of the
Little Green Men, by Mack Reynolds. Phoenix. $2.00.  ...Jeb Knight,
young detective,...is hired to track down extra-terrestrial aliens who
may be hanging around the science-fiction boys. ...You won't be able
to put this yarn down.

Newspaper allusions to "little green men" as occupants of reported
flying saucers became common within a few months of the publication of
Reynolds's novel.

As far as I can tell, no actual UFO witness of the period is quoted as
claiming to have seen "little green men" associated with a reported
flying saucer.

JL

On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 8:27 AM, 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:      Re: "little green men"; "flying saucer"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yes, Jesse. As some of us know better than we would ordinarily care to
> admit, pilot Kenneth Arnold's sighting on June 24, 1947, introduced
> the concept of "flying saucers." (Earlier exx. of the phrase exist:
> they refer to clay pigeons.)
>
> Here is the lead paragraph of the of the initial AP report on Arnold's sighting:
>
> 1947 _Portland [Me.] Press Herald_ (June 26) 26 [NewspArch]:
> PENDELTON, Ore., June 25 (AP) -- Nine bright saucer-like objects
> flying at "incredible speed" at 10,000 feet altitude were reported
> here today by Kenneth Arnold, [a] Boise, Idaho, pilot who said he
> could not hazard a guess as to what they were.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 5:49 AM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "little green men"; "flying saucer"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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."
>>> >
>>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org