ipse dixit
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Latin ipse (“himself”) dīxit (“he said”), third-person singular perfect active of dīcō (“say, speak”), a calque of Ancient Greek αὐτὸς (autos) ἔφα (epha). Originally used by the followers of Pythagoreanism, who claimed this or that proposition to be uttered by Pythagoras himself.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Phrase
- (rhetoric) An unproved proposition that is accepted solely on the authority of someone who is known to have asserted it; a dogmatic statement; a dictum.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book V, chapter i
- To avoid, therefore, all imputation of laying down a rule for posterity, founded only on the authority of ipse dixit—for which, to say the truth, we have not the profoundest veneration...
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book V, chapter i
- An authority who makes such an assertion.
[edit] See also
Ipse dixit on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
[edit] References
- Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989
