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Thursday word: illeism
Aug. 13th, 2015 08:22 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
prettygoodword.livejournal.comilleism (IL-e-izm) - n., the practice of referring to oneself in the third person.
Originally, when coined as a nonce-word by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, using "he" or "she" excessively in general, but this was later contracted to specifically mean using it for oneself instead of the usual first-person "I" -- and then by extension, referring to yourself by name as well. As a two-year-old illeist of my acquaintance puts it, "Andrew do that!" Coined from Latin ille, meaning he/that person, which is something that The Rock does not approve of.
Many toddlers practice illeim until they figure out how slippery pronouns work.
---L.
Originally, when coined as a nonce-word by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, using "he" or "she" excessively in general, but this was later contracted to specifically mean using it for oneself instead of the usual first-person "I" -- and then by extension, referring to yourself by name as well. As a two-year-old illeist of my acquaintance puts it, "Andrew do that!" Coined from Latin ille, meaning he/that person, which is something that The Rock does not approve of.
Many toddlers practice illeim until they figure out how slippery pronouns work.
---L.
