[Ads-l] antedating "UFO"

[Ben Zimmer]

Again, see my recent "UFO" column for the WSJ: https://on.wsj.com/3Edux7t

I also shared relevant cites in a long Twitter thread after the column came
out in February:

https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1626920800925192194

Bill Mullins first shared the 1952 Project Blue Book memo here back in 2005:

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-June/050698.html


On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 3:07 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I just posted that under "antedating 'unidentified flying object.'"
>
> You'll have noticed, as did I, that the '47 example is used literally, with
> none of the later connotations of the phrase.
>
> Captain Edward Ruppelt of Blue Book claimed to have coined "UFO" as an
> official term. Perhaps he was not alone though Blue Book's actual staff at
> Wright-Patterson was usually single-digit minuscule.
>
> At any rate, soon after the appearance of Keyhoe's "Flying Saucers from
> Outer Space," everybody knew the difference between a merely unidentified
> flying object and a "UFO."
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 2:36 PM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > "Unidentified flying object" appears as early as 1947.
> >
> > “Area Residents Join Many Seeing ‘Discs.’” Times News (Twin Falls,
> Idaho),
> > 6 July 1947, 1. Newspaperarchive.com.
> >
> > "Large numbers of flying discs Saturday were reported seen both on
> > Independence day and several weeks ago by many Magic Valley residents.
> > Within a 20-minute period at least 35 of the unidentified flying objects
> > were seen by nearly 60 persons who were picnicking at Twin falls park
> > Friday." [sic: non-standard capitalization in original]
> >
> >
> > [ https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/flying-saucer ](
> > https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/flying-saucer )
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2023 12:42pm
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: [ADS-L] antedating "UFO"
> >
> >
> >
> > OED: 1953 (Nov.)
> >
> > 1952 Project Blue Book memorandum (Wright Patterson AFB, O.) TS. (Nov.
> 4):
> > Sightings of UFO's at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee. (Dec.
> 15):
> > The purpose of the call was to contact Mr. Gittings in regard to some
> > previous data that Capt [sic] Ruppelt had obtained about the visual
> > sightings of UFO [sic] and radiation from unknown sources.
> >
> > <goog_1925437364>
> >
> >
> https://archive.org/details/1949-11-6314850-Mt-Palomar-California/page/n17/mode/2up?q=%22project+blue+book%22+UFO
> >
> > 1953 [pub. Oct. 5] Donald E. Keyhoe _Flying Saucers from Outer Space_
> > (N.Y.: Holt) 6: Whipping into a tight circle, the UFO cut inside the
> > pursuit curve he had set up.
> >
> > 1953 _Atlanta Journal and Constitution_ (Oct. 4) 7-F: The Air Force says
> > that flying saucers are very real. (The official term is "unidentified
> > flying object" or UFO.)
> >
> > Keyhoe's book and reviews like the AJC's publicized the term. (OED's
> ex.is
> > from an excerpt in a pilots' magazine.)
>

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