pod person adj.

an alien, a monster; a person considered to be conformist, unoriginal, or emotionless; one who lacks personality or individuality

pl. pod people

[< pod, in the 1955 Jack Finney novel The Body Snatchers and esp. the 1956 film adaptation Invasion of the Body Snatchers: a plant-like alien capable of replicating a person exactly]

Aliens

[1955 J. Finney Body Snatchers (1976) 153
The pods are a parasite on whatever life they encounter… They have the ability to reform and reconstitute themselves into perfect duplication, cell for living cell, of any life form they may encounter.]
1956 Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) 12 Mar. 21 (advt. for the movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Watch out! The whole world taken over by the pod people!
1978 Washington Post 2 Apr. k1
No caricature of this ideal being is possible…; it’s the home-grown pod-person of the S-F classic ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’.
1992 D. Coupland Shampoo Planet xii. 61
He’s become a pod person: functioning but without a soul.
2004 J. Weiner Little Earthquakes 388
‘I feel sorry for her.’… Andrew narrowed his eyes. ‘Have you been taken over by the pod people?’

Research History

Last modified 2020-12-20 18:37:51
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.