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)

1. (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.

2. (science fiction) An alien interplanetary vessel, typically disc-shaped and of metallic construction.
3. 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

 

Derived terms

• flying saucer group

Translations

disc-shaped unidentified flying object

• Arabic: طَبَق طَائِر m (ṭabaq ṭāʔir)
• Armenian: թռչող ափսե (tʻṙčʻoġ apʻse)
• Azerbaijani: uçan dairə
• Bulgarian: летяща чиния f (letjašta činija)
• Catalan: platet volador m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 飛碟／飞碟 (zh) (fēidié)

• Cornish: padellik neyja f
• Czech: létající talíř (cs) m
• Danish: flyvende tallerken c
• Dutch: vliegende schotel
• Esperanto: fluganta subtaso
• Estonian: lendav taldrik
• Faroese: flúgvandi diskur m
• Finnish: lentävä lautanen (fi)
• French: soucoupe volante (fr) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: fliegende Untertasse (de) f
• Greek: ιπτάμενος δίσκος (el) m (iptámenos dískos)
• Greenlandic: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: उड़न तश्तरी (uṛan taśtarī)
• Hungarian: repülő csészealj
• Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: sásar eitilte m
• Italian: disco volante m
• Japanese: 空飛ぶ円盤 (そらとぶえんばん, sora tobu enban)
• Kazakh: ұшатын табақ (ūşatyn tabaq)
• Korean: 비행접시 (bihaengjeopsi)
• Latin: patella volans f
• Macedonian: летечка чинија f (letečka činija)
• Mongolian: нисдэг таваг (nisdeg tavag)
• Norman: souôtâsse volante f
• Norwegian: flygende tallerken
• Persian: بشقاب پرنده (fa) (bošqâb parande)
• Polish: latający spodek (pl) m
• Portuguese: disco voador (pt) m
• Romanian: farfurie zburătoare (ro) f
• Russian: лета́ющая таре́лка (ru) f (letájuščaja tarélka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: летећи тањир m

  Roman: leteći tanjir m

• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: platillo volante (es) m, platillo volador (es) m
• Swedish: flygande tefat (sv) n
• Thai: จานบิน (th) (jaan-bin), จานผี (th)
• Turkish: uçan daire (tr) (UFO is also used.)
• Urdu: اڑن طشتری (uṛan tashtarī), اڑن تشتری (uṛan tashtarī)
• Vietnamese: đĩa bay
• Welsh: soser hedegog f

See also

• flying disc