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

[Ben Zimmer]

As mentioned in my Feb. 16, 2023 WSJ column (https://on.wsj.com/3Edux7t):

"In the latest terminological twist, NASA has modified 'UAP' to stand for a
slightly different phrase: 'unidentified anomalous phenomena.'"

Linking to:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-announces-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-study-team-members/

Also mentioned in my Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1626924874504495104

On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 7:36 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Now it means "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon":
> https://www.foxnews.com/us/mosul-orb-us-silent-ufo-filmed-military-iraq
>
> This may have to do with the 2022 creation of the Pentagon’s "All-domain
> Anomaly Resolution Office," an expansion of the "Airborne Object
> Identification and Management Group":
>
> https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3100053/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/
>
> There's the signpost up ahead....
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 12:23 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > To judge from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's discussion with Jake Tapper on
> > CNN's "State of the Union" today, there's a strong connotational
> difference
> > between "UAP" and "UFO."
> >
> > "UFO" implies "might well be from outer space." "UAP" implies "might well
> > be Russian or Chinese." Gillibrand cited 171 cases reviewed by DoD in the
> > past two years that have resisted specialist analysis.
> >
> > She referred to the need to know "what these aircraft are" and whether
> > we're being spied on "by our adversaries."
> >
> > Yet whether UFO or UAP, the "unidentified" remain unidentified.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 4:39 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Not in my existing thread. I must have trashed it somehow.
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 3:39 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Garson provided that cite info in the original thread in October:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2022-October/162459.html
> >>>
> >>> Also included in my February Twitter thread (with a hat tip to Garson):
> >>>
> >>> https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1626924403622543362
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 3:31 PM Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >>> >
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > Update: the 1958 "UAP" is  from Avram Davidson's story, "The Grantha
> >>> > Sighting," in the April, 1958, ish of _Fantasy and Science Fiction_,
> >>> p. 58:
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>>
> https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v014n04_1958-04_PDF/page/n47/mode/2up?q=sightings
> >>> >
> >>> > JL
> >>> >
> >>> > On Sun, Oct 23, 2022 at 10:33 AM Jonathan Lighter <
> >>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> >>> > wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> > > 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.
> >>> > >
> >>> > >
>

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