"unidentified flying object" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

In 2005,

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0506B&L=ADS-L&P=R13666
&I=-3&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches

I pushed "UFO" back to 3 Nov 1952, "Unidentified Flying Object" back to
Feb 1949, and "flying saucer" back to 6/28/1947.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 9:07 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "unidentified flying object"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "unidentified flying object"
>
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> -
>
> The OED's primary "UFO" quote is from a magazine excerpt from Maj.
> Donald E. Keyhoe's   _Flying Saucers from Outer Space_ (N.Y.: Holt),
> published Oct. 5, 1953.
>
> Further information from the farthest reaches of my library:
>
> P. 10 (rpt. London: Tandem,. 1970): "The [aircraft] had been hit by an
> unidentified flying body. (In the United States, the official term for
> a flying saucer is an 'unidentified flying object.'"
>
> P. 11: "Did the UFO (unidentified flying object) seem to be piloted or
> under remote control? ...On and on went the probing questions, worked
> out by the Air Technical Intelligence Center [at Wright-Patterson AFB]
> to identify UFO types."
>
> Keyhoe uses "UFO" throughout, in what was the first book-length
> journalistic attempt to show that "saucers" were actually from space.
> Keyhoe thus publicized the acronym "UFO."
>
> It seems most likely that "UFO" was coined (as the 1956 OED cite
> suggests) at Project Blue Book, the tiny office of ATIC dedicated to
> investigating such reports, very possibly during the summer of 1952:
> this was a period which saw many news reports of "flying saucers," as
> well as the first known relevant use of the phrase "unidentified
> flying object." Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, chief of Blue Book from early
> 1952, offhandedly claimed credit for the acronym (as in the OED cite).
>
> Before the appearance of Keyhoe's book (or the excerpt from it, which
> seems to have appeared a little earlier), "UFO" was a term quite
> unknown to the public.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 9:13 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:      "unidentified flying object"
> >
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> ---
> >
> > 1952 _Wisconsin State Journal_ (Madison) (Aug. 2) I 2 [NewspArch]:
> > Several persons have shown snapshots purporting to show saucers or
> > some sort of unidentified flying object, but this is the first photo
> > with any kind of official attachment.
> >
> > A slightly earlier ex., from July, 1952, cannot be loaded.
> >
> > The phrase became a common synonym for "flying saucer" over the next
> > two or three years. OED's primary "UFO" quote is from fall, 1953.
> >
> > 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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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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