Flier/flyer

Question

As a quasi-synonym for "advertisement" or "poster", how would you spell it? Do you happen to know about the history of the term? It is used in French to describe those little sheets of paper that advertise a party or a concert. You can find them in record shops or music venues.
MTIA
Isab elle

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]As a quasi-synonym for "advertisement" or "poster", how would you spell it? Do you happen to know about the history ... sheets of paper that advertise a party or a concert. You can find them in record shops or music venues.[/nq]
Feuilleton = flyer.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]As a quasi-synonym for "advertisement" or "poster", how would you spell it? Do you happen to know about the history ... that advertise a party or a concert. You can find them in record shops or music venues. MTIA Isab elle[/nq]
OED notes both spellings.
" c. Printing. (See quot.) Also pl.

1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 895/2 Flyer, a vibratory rod with fingerswhich take the sheet of paper from the tapes and carry it to the delivery table, the sheet resting flatly against the flyer-fingers by the resistance of the air. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 706.

d. U.S. A small handbill or fly-sheet; spec. one issued by the police (see also quot. 1952).
1889 Lit. World (U.S.) 21 Dec. 485/2 Inserting gaily~coloredadvertising fliers in the body of the magazine. 1952 Berrey & Van Den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (ed. 2) §477.4 Flyer,. 1955 D. W. Maurer in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 149 Is there a flyer out for this man? This is a police circular carrying photographs, fingerprints. 1962 K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed xiv. 94 Boards covered with tacked-up police flyers.

1965 E. McBain Doll (1966) iii. 38 Leslie offered him the agency flyer on Tinha, the composite that went to all photographers, advertising agency art directors, and prospective clients. 1966 D. Shannon With a Vengeance (1968) i. 13 They had also an unidentified corpse, and all the paperwork on that: the flyers sent out with the description. 1966 Word Study Feb. 6/2 This sentence from a recent advertising flier of Fortune. "
So I'm not sure about the origin. Possibilities seem to be:
1. Derived from the "flyer" or rod which moves the sheets from theprinter to the delivery table.

2. Derived from "fly-sheet".

And "fly-sheet" (still OED) is said to be "1889 Worcester Suppl., Fly-sheet, an advance sheet announcing a newspaper; a prospectus." and equivalent to a "flying sheet" which is from a meaning of "flying":

" 5. That flies about. a. Of a tale, rumour, etc.: Circulating without definite authority. flying sheet: a leaflet printed for distribution broadcast.
... 1682 Bunyan Holy War 40, I hope they are but flying stories.
1769 Burke Late St. Nat. Wks. II. 10 The light squadrons of occasionalpamphlets and flying sheets. ..."
Maybe they were "flying sheets" because they flew about, literally and figuratively?

John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]As a quasi-synonym for "advertisement" or "poster", how would you spell it? Do you happen to know about the history of the term?[/nq]
It is known from a reliable source (Hollywood science) that flyers were in use in ancient Rome
to attract spectators for 'Gladiator!',
Jan

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]As a quasi-synonym for "advertisement" or "poster", how would you spell it?[/nq]
Flyer.

Flier/flyer

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