[Ads-l] Put it in the gray basket

[Dave Hause]

One more speculation:  U.S. federal (at least the Army's) standard issue 
stackable metal office supply document trays are gray, used as in-baskets 
and out-baskets, they could easily be expanded with a third as an 
'I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this-one-basket.'
Dave Hause

-----Original Message----- 
From: Michael Quinion
Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2016 3:32 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Put it in the gray basket

A reader asks about the expression "put it in the gray basket", which
seems to mean putting aside those questions for which there is too
little evidence to form a conclusion. An example: "As a physicist, I
believe one must ask the right questions, have a large 'gray basket' for
those questions about which there is too little solid information to
reach a scientific conclusion." (/Flying Saucers and Science: A
Scientist Investigates the Mysteries of Ufos/, by Stanton T. Friedman,
2008.) The spelling is always "gray", suggesting it is of US provenance.
The idiom is hardly common but appears most often in the context of
UFOs, alien kidnappings and the like. The obvious potential link is with
those mythical alien greys associated with such abduction claims. Can
anyone supply pointers to the genesis of "gray basket"?

-- 
Michael Quinion, World Wide Words
http://www.worldwidewords.org


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