"little green men"; "flying saucer"

[George Thompson]

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
 wrote:

> 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.
>

pink elephant n. *colloq.* a type of something extraordinary or impossible,
*spec.* a characteristic hallucination supposedly experienced by a drunk or
delirious person (usu. in *pl.*).
 1900    *Blue Pencil
Mag.<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/144203?rskey=r8FNOz&result=1&isAdvanced=true>
* Apr. 22/1   She don't stand for this booze business, and I'm opposed to it
myself. D'ye see them pink elephants running up my pants legs?
 1933    *Official World's Fair Weekly (Chicago)
<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/144203?rskey=r8FNOz&result=1&isAdvanced=true>
*30 Sept. 25/3   Nightmares of the modern school are built around ‘pink
elephants’ if we are to believe the song writers.
 1984    M. Amis
*Money<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/144203?rskey=r8FNOz&result=1&isAdvanced=true>
* (BNC) (1985) 93   Goodney, in his white suit, suntan and sliding blond
hair, stood out like a pink elephant.

"If h had won [on a bet] the sky would have been hung in rose pink ribbons,
canary birds would have been trilling in every bar room, and he would have
been steadily drunk until that epoch in all continued debauches when pink
elephants begin to sail into the room through the open transom.
National Police Gazette, November 22, 1879, p. 15 (per Proquest)

GAT

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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.
>
> --
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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