I have a theory and I’m trying to test it out.
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When you hear the word Alien, what defination comes to mind?
A. Person from another country
B. Lifeform from another planet -
What is your age?
It would depend very much on the context in which the word was being used, but generally I’d say:
B. Lifeform from another planet
I’m 40
I can’t imagine hearing the word without context so I don’t think I can really answer acurately.
The closest thing I can say is that I think “foreign.” Whether it be a foreign concept, a foreign person, a foreign instrument, or a foreign creature, well, that all depends on the context.
if the word is ‘alien’ by itself, then i’m thinking of E.T. If, on the other hand, it’s ‘illegal alien’ then I most certainly am not thinking of E.T. on a crime spree.
My first thought is “life form from another planet”, outside of any context that would give it the other meaning.
I’m 41.
Hmm. Without context, here’s what I think of:
Alien: Alien
Aliens: Aliens
Illegal alien: Starman
I’m 30. I suffered from “Too Much HBO” in the late 80s.
Of course they’re from another planet. That’s been the main use of the term, in what I’ve seen and read, all my life.
When I was a kid, they used to run “public service ads” on TV, especially early in the morning. One of the common ones was “Aliens Must REgister in January of Every Year.” Of course, I couldn’t help but think of extraterrestrial aliens. And the cheapo animation they used for the commercials didn’t help. The “aliens” who were registering were blob=faced, chinless, off-color mutants, very unlike the square-jawed postal employees suggested by the elementary animation behind those post office windows.
“Aliens” isn’t the only common word to be hijacked into a much better-known SF usage. “Martian” used to be a perfectly acceptable terrestrial, mundane word before H.G. Wells stole it. And one of my professors, during a lecture, wistfully remarked that “‘Phasor’ used to be a perfectly good term until Star Trek came along.” (And, yes, I know it’s spelled differently. But it’s pronounced the same.)
What do they mean? Martian, according to Merriam-Webster, means what I thought it meant. Phasor is one of those words you have to pay for (I’ve never paid for them but I’ve gotten the impression that many or all of them aren’t words at all… :dubious:.)
Alien = from another planet.
48 year old sci-fi reader here
Yeah, they ain’t from this part of the galaxy.
I learned that 41 years ago, when our ship crashed.
“Martian” meant a warlike person, one who favored a military response/ Kinda like the current self-applied slang of “Vulcans” for a lot of the Bush crew. (That’s going to result in a lot of interesting editorial cartoons).
“Phasor” is a way of reporting the length and angle of a vector quantity. “phasor notation” used to be pretty popular in science and engineering courses.
A good complete Webster’s or Oxford dictionary ought to have these.
What do you mean “Phasor is one of those words you have to pay for” ?
Go to www.m-w.com and type in “Phasor”. You have to pay to get the definition. Unfortunately, it’s the only dictionary I have at the moment.
A. Life from another planet. I’ve rarely heard it used otherwise.
B. 19
Oh and Im 28
Im also prone to answering the question before I’ve read it to the end. Must remember to be less impulsive.
I remember those! XETV (channel 6) in San Diego. I was convinced that they meant space aliens had to register.
B. Definitely lifeform from another planet.
I think “alien” when used as someone from another country is actually kind of insulting. It seems to define a much larger gap between them and I then I really intend, as if they could never be anything but an alien.
And I’m 28.
1 B.
B; 49.
B
41.
Did I sink you Battleship? 
Unless I’m in GD, almost definitely someone from another planet. I’m more likely to discuss sci-fi than immigration. By the way, I’m 16.