[Ads-l] Antedating of "Beam Me Up, Scotty"

[Peter Reitan]

People are interested in "Beam me up, Scotty," specifically is that it survived as a catch-phrase in its own right, even though it was ever uttered in the original TV series (although Kirk did say, "Beam us up Scotty" a few times in the animated series in the early 70s).  I saw two newspaper references to buttons that say "Beam me up!"  sold at a Star Trek conventions in the Bay area in Florida in January/February 1975 .


I found a good post on the Science Fiction and Fantasy StackExchange<https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/132579/origin-of-beam-me-up-scotty> by someone who seems to have detailed information.


A participant named Praxis says:


"I can find no single origin point for this never-uttered catchphrase,  but I would hazard that it's a natural mutation of several similar  phrases, the closest being a command directed at Spock instead of  Scotty:

     KIRK: Beam me up, Mister Spock.  (From "The Squire of Gothos")
This could easily have become blurred with the various forms of this command issued to Scotty, such as

     KIRK: Scotty, beam us up fast! (From "The Savage Curtain")
etc., as well as a couple instances of

     KIRK: Beam us up, Scotty
coming to us by way of The Animated Series (for example, as heard in "The Infinite Vulcan").
The earliest instance of "Beam me up, Scotty" I can find in print is in Volume 79 of The Aeronautical Journal, published in 1975:

     ...cliffs, fire, forest or mountain is most probably some form of  transporter device such as that used by Captain Kirk and the crew of the  starship "Enterprise" — a sort of "beam me up Scotty" routine. However as this is still in the realms of fantasy...
(Source)

That this is the origin of the phrase is possible but highly unlikely  — it almost certainly existed orally amongst the public in the late 60s  during the run of TOS itself."



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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2017 1:25:53 PM
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Subject: Re: Antedating of "Beam Me Up, Scotty"

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Beam Me Up, Scotty"
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If we are going to allow permutations, Kirk says "Beam me up, Mister Spock"
in the original series.


DanG

On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 3:54 PM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:

> _[Globe] Arizona Silver Belt_ 27 May 1971 p 21 col  8 [newspapers.com]
>
> "Beam us up, Scotty."
>
> >
> > beam me up, Scotty (OED 1984)
> >
> >
> > 1975 _The Crusader_ (Susquehanna University student newspaper) 16 May 3
> (Internet Archive) Beam me up, Scotty.
> >
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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