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

Wed Jun 20 17:04:49 UTC 2018

DT-related:

1878 _Inter Ocean_ (Chicago) (Oct. 8) 5: James Traynor stood on the corner
of the street and howled and apostrophized an imaginary little green man he
saw leaning against a lamp-post. An officer..., finding he had an awful
attack of the "horrors," ...put him in a nice, cool cell.

JL

On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 7:31 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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."
>

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

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