flying saucer
English
Etymology
From an interview given by amateur pilot Kenneth Arnold who described seeing nine flying objects that were "moving like saucers being skimmed across a lake". The description was not meant to describe the shape of the objects, only how they maneuvered, yet the misinterpretation took hold and gained popularity.
Noun
flying saucer (plural flying saucers)
- (informal) A disc-shaped unidentified flying object or UFO; originally in reference to sightings by aviator Kenneth Arnold in Washington in 1947.
- Some connect the recent spate of flying saucer sightings with a rumored top-secret military aviation project.
- 1950 December 6, The Sydney Morning Herald, page 3, column 5:
- An engram is NOT [...] One of the little green men Americans claim have crashed in flying saucers.
- (science fiction) An alien interplanetary vessel, typically disc-shaped and of metallic construction.
- A form of confectionery, a small spheroidal capsule of rice paper filled with sherbet.
Synonyms
- (flying craft): saucercraft
Coordinate terms
- alien
- ET
- extraterrestrial
- foo
- foo fighter
- little green man
- Martian
- mothership
- UFO
Translations
disc-shaped unidentified flying object
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See also
- flying disc