"little green men"; "flying saucer"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Leprechauns rather than aliens from outer space?
On Sep 12, 2014 8:07 PM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "little green men"; "flying saucer"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Much older than it seemed as a vision of the DTs or insanity:
>
> 1895 _St. Louis Republic_ (Feb. 17) III 18:
> I want my medicine - see? And she won't give it to me. ...Look at the
> little green men on the gas fixtures! See the toads hopping about the
> floor.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 9:05 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Bloch's "LGM" seem more like the hallucinatory sort than the kind from
> > space.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 7:13 PM, George Thompson
> > <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
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> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: "little green men"; "flying saucer"
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > 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=3Dr8FNOz&=
> > > result=3D1&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> > > * Apr. 22/1   She don't stand for this booze business, and I'm opposed
> > to i=
> > > t
> > > 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=3Dr8FNOz&resu=
> > > lt=3D1&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> > > *30 Sept. 25/3   Nightmares of the modern school are built around
> =91pink
> > > elephants=92 if we are to believe the song writers.
> > >  1984    M. Amis
> > > *Money<
> > http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/144203?rskey=3Dr8FNO=
> > > z&result=3D1&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> > > * (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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> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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