| illeism |
| Definition: The habit of referring to yourself in the third person. Note: Originally, it denoted the excessive use of the pronoun he when referring to yourself. Someone who does this is called an illeist. |
| Example:
Reporter to Ricky Henderson: "Are you an illeist?" Ricky Henderson: "Yes, Ricky Henderson is an illeist." |
| Etymology: The word derives from the Latin ille, that (one); thus illeism is "that one-ism." |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1809–10: "For one piece of egotism … there are fifty that steal out in the mask of tuisms and ille-isms." (Coleridge Friend (1818) I. 36 ) |