I know what it is called when one refers to oneself in the 3rd person: illeism.

Is there a term for the practice of referring to the person one is addressing in the 3rd person?

e.g. “So what is Mr Brown going to do today?” (said to Mr Brown)

EDIT: Fixed the spelling mistake (thanks)

I know what it is called when one refers to oneself in the 3rd person: ileism.

Is it? Googling turns up a lone website that uses the term.

OP means illeism, which the OED calls a nonce-word (i.e., invented for a single occasion); it is defined as “Excessive use of the pronoun he (either in reference to another person or to oneself in the third person)” and was used only by Coleridge. The parenthesis explains why it is the word OP wants.  (It is based on Latin ille ‘that man, he.’)

languagehat - 25 November 2010 05:50 AM

OP means illeism, which the OED calls a nonce-word (i.e., invented for a single occasion); it is defined as “Excessive use of the pronoun he (either in reference to another person or to oneself in the third person)” and was used only by Coleridge. The parenthesis explains why it is the word OP wants.  (It is based on Latin ille ‘that man, he.’)

A google search reveals a significant number of “modern” books which use the term, e.g., Vol. I of the Cambridge Shakespeare Library,

The fact that illeism appears in Troilus after Shakespeare introduced it in Caesar makes it plain that he could readily transfer to a Greek setting something he thought of as characteristically Roman.