[Ads-l] UAP - unidentified aerial phenomena (or phenomenon)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Garson.  And many thanks for ID'ing the month and page.

I was a saucer buff from 1965 to the late '70s and read all I could find on
the subject that wasn't totally screwball. I must confess, though, that
when the Navy used "UAP" when it released UFO footage in 2017, the acro
seemed novel.

Of course, "aerial phenomenon" is a more objective description than "flying
object."

In my day, the acronym was so rarely employed that it never fully
registered on me. Rereading some of the exx. above, I'm sure I'd have
thought it no more than a marginal eccentricity. It doesn't seem to appear,
for example, in Ron Story's extensive _UFO Encyclopedia_ (1980).

It seems likely that Davidson (a prominent sf writer) was the originator.

JL



On Sun, Oct 23, 2022 at 1:54 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I meant: Great work, JL!
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org