Definition:
The act of referring to oneself (often habitually) in the third person.
Someone who practices illeism is (among other things) an illeist. Adjective: illeistic.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "that man"Examples and Observations:
- "I do mind, the Dude minds. This will not stand, you know. This aggression will not stand, man."
(Jeff Bridges as the Dude in The Big Lebowski, 1998) - "Here's one thing people don't know about Herman Cain: I'm in it to win it. . . .
"I don’t regret that choice of words because when people believe Herman Cain and his message, they know that it is sincere."
(Republican presidential contender Herman Cain in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Nov. 7, 2011) - "I wanted to do what was best for LeBron James and what LeBron James was going to do to make him happy."
(basketball player LeBron James, announcing that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat, July 8, 2010) - "You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."
(Richard M. Nixon, November 7, 1962) - "Women are an enigma as far as Grimes is concerned."
(Captain Grimes in Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, 1928) - "No, madman! Whatever you may see there--it is not fear! Fear is for lesser men. Never for Doom!"
(Doctor Victor Von Doom, Super Villain Team-Up #12) - "Jimmy's gonna get you, Kramer! Hands off Jimmy! Don't touch Jimmy!"
(Jimmy, "The Jimmy," Seinfeld, 1995) - "I am very proud to be from Russell, Kansas, population 5,500. My dad went to work every day for 42 years and proud of it, and my mother sold Singer sewing machines to try to make ends meet. Six of us grew up living in a basement apartment. That was Bob Dole's early life, and I'm proud of it."
(Senator Bob Dole, March 14, 1996) - Norm MacDonald: Aw, come on now, Senator, it's a great impression. Listen to this: "Come November 5th, a lot of people are going to be surprised by Bob Dole, because Bob Dole's gonna win this election!"
Bob Dole: Doesn't sound a thing like me. First of all, I don't run around saying "Bob Dole does this" and "Bob Dole does that." That's not something Bob Dole does. It's not something Bob Dole has ever done, and it's not something Bob Dole will ever do!"
(Saturday Night Live, Nov. 16, 1996) - "Ozzie Smith is not a uniquely talented person. In fact, he is no different than any man, woman, boy, or girl in this audience today."
(Ozzie Smith, on his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002) - "When Andrew Bogut called the NBA draft a great day in 'the life of Andrew Bogut, the family of Andrew Bogut,' the top pick of the Milwaukee Bucks became yet another prominent person fond of the third-person voice, whose strange fraternity of admirers has long included Miss Manners, Bob Dole and Kermit the Frog. . . .
"[T]he cult of third person-ality is far and away most prevalent in professional sports, in which every other athlete now refers to himself as if he were somebody else. This trend annually sinks to a new sub-basement of silliness at the NBA draft, where even those put off by the third-person voice seem obliged to try it on, along with the team baseball cap. Said Sean May, before being selected by the Bobcats, 'When you look at Sean May--and I don't mean to talk in the third person--you know what you're getting.' . . .
"Wade Boggs once said to a television interviewer, in attempting to explain his predilection for the third person, 'My father always told me not to be a braggart, not to say I, I, I.' (To which one can only say i-yi-yi.)"
(Steve Rushin, "There Is No 'I' in Steve." Sports Illustrated, July 11, 2005) - "I'd like to thank all the people who made this show possible. Thank you, Stephen Colbert."
(Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, January 6, 2009)
Pronunciation: ILL-ee-izm
