Word of the Day: nosism

nosism (n)

The practice of referring to oneself in the plural, as "we".

"The audiences here are avid and toughened -- they've survived top poetry read badly; ghastly poetry read ghastly; the mediocre read with theatrical flourish; poets in advanced stages of discomfort, ego-mania bumbling; grand style, relentless insistence, professional down-the-nosism, charm, calm, schizophrenic disorder, pious agony, auto-erotic hypnosis, bellowing, hatred, pity, snarl and snub."
--Robert Duncan, quoted in Charles Simic's Memory Piano

Mark Twain once said, "Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we'." I inhabit one of those categories (no, I don't have a tapeworm, although I am mysteriously hungry at present); I don't use the editorial "we" much, however. (When I say "we" here, I'm referring to myself and my wyfe, or some other personage.) Nosism has its charms, though, and it expresses a certain verity. As Walt Whitman said, "I am large, I contain multitudes." Don't we all?