Antedating of "Flying Saucer"

[Dave Wilton]

There's also this on the same day:

1947 _The Globe and Mail_ (Toronto) 26 June 8 (dateline: 25 June) (heading)
Mystery 'Saucers' in Oregon May be Astral Clay Pigeons

I had previously found a 28 June article from the LA Times that uses "flying
saucer" in the text. (I'm pretty sure I sent that one into the OED.)

Note that all these articles refer to the same 24 June incident where
Kenneth Arnold saw objects in the sky. That incident set off a spate of UFO
sightings in the following weeks. Arnold claimed that he never described
them as "saucers," and that he was misquoted. (He said he told reporters
they moved like saucers skipping on a pond, but they were boomerang-shaped.)
A real find would be a citation that predates the Arnold incident.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2013 9:42 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Antedating of "Flying Saucer"

flying saucer (OED 8 July 1947)

1947 _Chicago Sun_ 26 June 2 (Wikipedia entry on "flying saucer")  (heading)
Supersonic flying saucers sighted by Idaho pilot.

Fred Shapiro

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