orthoteny

English

Noun

orthoteny (countable and uncountable, plural orthotenies)

1. The study of straight lines, especially in regards to the flight paths that UFO's tend to follow.
   • 1951, Anthony Boucher, J. Francis McComas, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction‎^[1], volume 16, Mercury Press, Incorporated, page 86:

     […] believes that he had discovered a new principle called orthoteny, according to which saucer-sightings of any given short period tend, far more often than chance would permit, form plottable straight lines of 3 or more points.

   • 1958, Junior Libraries‎^[2], volume 5, R.R. Bowker., page 117:

     […] of flying saucer reports in France in 1954 supporting the author's theory of "orthoteny," i.e., the fact that he can connect the points at which flying saucers appeared each day with a series of straight lines radiating out from a central point.

   • 2024, Greg Eghigian, “4 From Mystery to Movement 1947-1960”, in After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon‎^[3], illustrated, reprint edition, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 110:

     Michel dubbed the pattern "orthoteny” (from the Greek orthoteneis, meaning "stretched in a straight line"). During the 1954 wave, he argued, flying saucers appeared over the course of any given day along straight lines crisscrossing French territory.