Faustian illeanism in the desert

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Thu May 5 21:56:19 UTC 2011


Actually, "Veni, vidi, vici" is only *attributed* to Caesar.

But what we know for sure, from _De Bello Gallico_ (unless it was faked by
Obama), is that Caesar was a Faustian illeist *in writing.*  There's no
evidence that he would have been one *on the Jerry Springer Show.*

But we do have evidence that Auda would be.

JL

On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 10:14 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Faustian illeanism in the desert
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:10 AM -0400 5/5/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >It's been a while since we mentioned this topic, which for newbies means
> the
> >habit, commonly observed in guests on the jerry Springer Show but not
> >restricted to them, of frequently referring to oneself by name in the
> third
> >person. It's Faustian because Marlowe's Faustus was doing it in the
> >seventeenth century. Of course, Julius Caesar did it long before that.
> >
> Not always, though.  "Venit, vidit, vicit" would have been far less
> memorable.
>
> LH
>
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