[Ads-l] Very Slight Antedating of "Flying Saucer" in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Wed Apr 6 14:21:05 UTC 2022


It is interesting that "flying saucer" is similar to "lunatic fringe" or "tin pan alley" or "software."  In all four cases, there is usage of the phrase or word in a different sense than the now-prevalent one and it is not clear whether there is a connection between the earlier usage and the current one.  "Flying saucer" was first used, I think, to describe targets at shooting clubs.

Fred


________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2022 9:35 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Very Slight Antedating of "Flying Saucer" in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

Finally getting to this a year later.... I've revised the entry, and added a 26 June cite from the Philadelphia Inquirer (that Fred Shapiro kindly provided to me offlist).

The Chicago Tribune article with a 25 June dateline quotes Kenneth Arnold describing the objects as "shaped like a pie plate", but does not actually contain the term "flying saucer".

Jesse Sheidlower
<hat>HDSF</hat>

On Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 08:16:27AM -0500, dave at wilton.net wrote:
>
> At least one of the those published on 26 June has a dateline of 25 June. Kenneth Arnold's sighting was on 24 June 1947.
>
> “Sees Mystery Aerial ‘Train’ 5 Miles Long.” Chicago Daily Tribune, 26 June 1947 (Dateline: 25 June), 1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, March 8, 2021 7:19am
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Very Slight Antedating of "Flying Saucer" in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
>
>
>
> The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction has 27 June 1947 as its first citation. A search in Newspapers.com yields many newspaper citations dated 26 June 1947.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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