[Ads-l] "little green men"; "flying saucer"

Wed Jun 20 11:31:35 UTC 2018

1937 Casey Robinson & Maurice Hanline _It's Love I'm After_ (film):  I have
little _green_ men jumping around in my head.

Olivia de Havilland loq. She has a headache.

Stress on "green" is unique in my experience.

JL

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 8:28 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "little green men"; "flying saucer"
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>
> Leprechauns rather than aliens from outer space?
> On Sep 12, 2014 8:07 PM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > 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:
> > > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > > 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.
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > "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."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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